The Survivors

High school reunion, graduation class of ´79: we meet again, after 16 years. Three of us are missing: they have committed suicide. Shortly after graduation, in 1979: Thilo, long hair, runs up a hill. A rebel, ready to charge ahead. He wants to be a musician. Thilo is a fighter – for his music, for more justice in the world. Thilo breaks free and disappears to France with a buddy. They end up in jail. A turning point? Thilo wants to study medicine. Rudi, son of a green grocer. At the horizontal bar, he can´t do much more than hang there like a wet sack. Rudi is popular – a sweet guy. He graduates with an “A” average. His father wants him to become a lawyer, but he quits law school after two semesters. He goes to Scotland and works as an assistant at a college. Something is wrong with him – three weeks later he is dead. Tilman: he played music with Thilo. He leaves high school after 11th grade, begins an apprenticeship as a metal worker. He moves to Berlin to avoid the military draft. Thilo visits him there, he has few friends. One morning he goes into the garage, closes the door, and turns on the motor. When Tilman dies, Thilo reports himself to the police, but nobody believes him. Two years later Thilo also goes into a garage and doesn´t emerge. What emerges is the portrait of a whole generation, one that has fallen through the grid of history. [incomplete version]