Crazy

Over this Christmas holiday, I read a great teenage novel called 'Crazy' by Benjamin Lebert. It was easy to read and really good for keeping up my German whilst away from school.

I then found the film on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5m5SJUof0M

A drama about a 16-year-old boy named Benjamin played by Robert Stadlober who, after experiencing some academic problems, is switched to a boarding school in order to improve his grades. When he reaches the new school, he has difficulty acclimating to his new environment along with some coming of age issues, when he falls in love with a dreamy girl Malen whom all the boys fancy. His problems are made worse because of his half-side disability and we sympathise with him.

I found the book very comical, but it might have been for someone a bit younger than me as it was almost too immature. All the same, the characters are really well portrayed, as the acting is very good and the directing by Hans-Christian Schmid is very successful.

This period of life is shown so authentically that everyone will/should be able to identify with the characters (or remember his/her own youth).