Lux - warrior of light

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Movie
Original title Lux - warrior of light
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2017
length 104 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Daniel Wild
script Daniel Wild
production Sebastian Zembol ,
Dagmar Kusche ,
Bernd Krause
music Bastian Emig
camera Yannick Bonica
cut Clemens Walter ,
Sebastian Lempe
occupation

Lux - Warriors of Light is a German film and the directorial debut of the Mainz director Daniel Wild . Wild developed the script as part of the Nuremberg scriptwriting grant, which the city of Nuremberg and Bayerischer Rundfunk jointly award. In 2015 it was honored as the best screenplay in the writing addiction category at the 44th International Student Film Festival Sehsuchten in Potsdam-Babelsberg . The film is a production by Mixtvision Mediengesellschaft München in co-production with Bayerischer Rundfunk. It was released in theaters on January 4, 2018. At the Hof International Film Festival in 2017, he received the Heinz Baditz Prize for the best directorial debut.

action

The young man Torsten Kachel wants to do good in Berlin. To do this, he makes himself a superhero costume. In addition to a mask and a cape , this consists of motorcycle gloves, the fingertips of which are cut off, as, according to Lux, as a superhero you need a sure instinct . Lux helps homeless people by buying drugstore items for them or by containerizing goods that have not been sold at a bakery . When he learns that Towo Immobilien Gesellschaft wants to evict long-term tenants from the Berlin prefabricated buildings in order to increase profit, he organizes demonstrations . Due to his masking he cannot accompany this to the end, as the police interrogate him because of the prohibition of masking . Jan Zogg and Lina Peschke sensed their breakthrough as filmmakers of a documentary about the superhero Lux and presented the concept to the “Brandt - Neue Medien” media company headed by Holger Brandt.

Brandt is a bit skeptical at first, but recognizes the potential of the person behind the figure of Lux. He sees Torsten as a freak whose naivety and clumsiness people could amuse themselves. With a little scripted reality , which Lux does not need to know about, one can certainly ensure that the format is popular in the mass media. After the meeting, Lina expresses her ethical concerns to Jan about the possible collaboration with Holger Brandt. She has the impression that the planned format does not do justice to the interests and intentions of Lux. However, she can be changed by Jan, who expresses his joy at having found a producer very clearly. Jan also equips Lux with an action camcorder so that his heroic deeds can always be recorded from a first perspective.

The team records several rather clumsy attempts by Lux to do good. For example, he is caught in the container and sent away because it is a theft and a criminal offense . The homeless friend Alan is thrown out of a shop. When Lux wants to win this for his demo for more affordable living space , Lux is demonstrated by Alan. The acquaintance emphasizes that you don't get anything for free in life, and underpins his view by saying that even Lux doesn't have a euro left for him at this moment. On the street, Lux is laughed at by passersby because of his masking. From the table dancer Kitty, who wears a mask similar to Lux, he receives a business card and an invitation to the club where she works. The supposed heroic deeds of Lux are rounded off by repeatedly showing scenes in which Lux speaks about his good intentions. In addition, Lux's mother is repeatedly asked about her son's deeds and seems to embarrass him. The production team and Holger Brandt are not satisfied with the results so far because they are not sensational or interesting enough. Jan suggests sending Lina across Berliner Straße in short clothes so that she can be sexually harassed and Lux ​​can show his heroic potential. Lina expresses her displeasure with this idea. As a compromise , Lux suggests that Jan can present himself in Berlin with such clothes. In his desperation to get sensational material, Jan accepts Lux's suggestion - but without success.

The team's attempts to obtain interesting and usable material take a turn when Lux sees a robbery on the street and courageously pursues the perpetrator in a back alley in Berlin. Unfortunately, the perpetrator escapes in a backyard and comes out of a shed with guard dogs. Lux is frightened, collapses and pees in his pants in shock. The perpetrator finds it amusing. With his mobile phone he films himself with the masked Lux ​​and puts the video under the title Wetman on Youtube . This makes Lux the nation's viral laughing stock overnight . Even the work colleagues at Torsten's day job, who don't recognize him behind Lux's mask, make fun of this video in the presence of Torsten. Holger Brandt sees this as an opportunity to take advantage of the popularity and organizes an interview for Lux with the web video producer Joyce Ilg , who is played by herself in the film. Lux is skeptical and realizes that he doesn't really want to gain popularity because his activities as a superhero are intrinsically motivated. Lux can be persuaded to take part in the interview with a new, professionally designed superhero costume and the flattery of Holger Brandt. In her #JoyceRide format, which only exists in the film, she takes Lux for a spin through Berlin, where she even sprays a water pistol between his legs in the crotch of his legs without prior consultation . Lux remains despite the re embarrassment friendly and has an opportunity to report on its activities against the Towo real estate company. At the end of the car ride with Joyce, extras hired by Holger Brandt storm up to Lux and demand autographs and selfies with him. As a result of the interview, the real estate company fears damage to its own image and refrains from its gentrification plans . Lux's success is in the papers and his mother is proud of him. Together with the filmmakers, the fact is celebrated that she, too, can now stay in her apartment with Lux.

Holger Brandt suggests to the production team that a little more eroticism helped every format. The team decides to visit Kitty. With her and Lux ​​in the leading roles, a rap song is recorded and a music video is shot. Holger Brandt is enthusiastic. However, it still lacks the crucial "something". He suggests that the character Lux could be expanded to include Lux and Kitty Warriors of Light. Kitty enjoys participating in music videos and getting media attention . However, she has no interest in roaming the streets with Lux at night and playing superhero. Without Kitty's participation, the format is still not sensational enough. Jan gives Lux an anonymous tip to watch someone at a certain time in a junkyard . Lux visits him with Lina and her cameraman, where he reports on the anonymous tip. In fact, a person appears who breaks into the junkyard and steals an object from the trunk of a car. Lux pursues and recovers the person who turns out to be Lux's homeless friend Alan. It turns out that the friend has accepted an order from an unknown person to get the envelope out of the car and give it to someone because of financial hardship. However, the group notes that the contents of the envelope are made of cocaine . Alan protests that he didn't know anything about it. Panic spreads in the group and the police appear, although apparently nobody has alerted them. Lux is once again hailed as a true hero in the Berlin media, as it looks like he has tracked down a cocaine dealer . However, he is internally torn because a friend of his - presumably innocent - is now in prison because of his heroic deeds. Jan cuts a video of Lux's supposedly heroic commitment to the junkyard. Lina notices that there are pictures in it that she and her cameraman could not have shot. She confronts Jan and accuses him of having been the anonymous whistleblower to Lux and fabricating the whole situation. He is even responsible for the fact that a friend of Lux is in prison. Jan argues that the homeless person has a better chance of survival in jail than on the street in winter. He signals that he doesn't care how Lux is doing with it. Lina, whose moral boundaries have already been exceeded several times, ends her collaboration with Jan and looks for a casual job in a children's home. Lux visits his friend in prison and asks how he's getting along. The friend is pissed off at Lux and has a fit of rage and is brought back to the cell by the guards.

Jan certainly has a remorse, but can be convinced by Holger that the format around the figure Lux is about to make a big breakthrough and should now be continued, otherwise everything would have been for nothing. Lux visits Kitty at the strip club, where she also works as a prostitute . Lux should have fun with her. The two spend time together in a booth and chat. However, Lux does not allow himself to be seduced. Much more, he shows interest in the person behind Kitty. It creates more of a platonic relationship between the two. Lux, who is still suffering from the consequences of the action in the junkyard, asks himself again whether the whole project still makes sense. He is withdrawing more and more. Holger Brandt puts pressure on Jan again that this project would be unpleasant at the current point in time. Lux ignores Jan's calls, but realizes that his mother has spoken to him on the answering machine. She went to hospital over the weekend because of her lung problems. Even though she was coughing up blood, she had always refused to be examined by a doctor, which Lux had reluctantly respected in the past. Lux tries to visit his mother in the hospital and learns that she has died. Lux withdraws even further in his grief and Jan gets nervous, especially since Lina seems to gain more and more influence over Lux. He plans to come to the children's home where she works as a superhero. Lux goes to the strip club with flowers and wants to surprise Kitty. Jan tries to hold him back in the club's parking garage. But Lux sticks to his plan and sees Kitty having sex with her boss in the car. Lux is shaken and runs away.

Later he listens to his answering machine and learns from Kitty that her boss is forcing her into prostitution and that she needs Lux's help. Lux reacts immediately and goes to the strip club. He searches the owner's office and is surprised by the owner with a gun. The owner asserts that he employed all women with non-wage agreements and that the additional income from prostitution would be tolerated by him solely at the request of the women. He shows pictures of Kitty, who appears to have a serious cocaine problem. He portrays it as prostituting herself to finance her drug addiction. The situation in his car arose because she seduced him and stole 300 euros from his wallet. For this reason he must now also fire her. In the course of the conversation with Lux, he gives him several drinks that seem to contain knockout drops. Shortly before Lux falls asleep, he is brought together with a kitty who appears to have been completely knocked out due to a drug intoxication. In the next scene, Lux wakes up at home and is visibly irritated by what happened the previous evening. The doorbell rings and Kitty visits him. She greets him with a slap. Lux is irritated. She shows him photos in which she was raped by a person in Lux mask after she was knocked out by knockout drops. Lux emphasizes that he can't remember and wouldn't do that. Kitty doesn't believe him, describes him as a "sick weirdo" and leaves the apartment angry. Lux tries to kill himself with a cutter and is discovered by Jan, who now realizes for the first time that the Reality Docutainment format is getting out of hand. Lux tries suicide a second time by trying to hang himself. He is stopped in his apartment by Holger Brandt. There is an argument. Lux slaps Holger in the face, disappears and remains missing for the rest of the film. Holger Brandt had probably equipped the entire Lux apartment with hidden cameras. He's also bringing Kitty back, who is delighted to be able to play in front of the camera in the successful format. He hires another person who tries suicide in a Lux outfit, but is stopped by Kitty. There is a kiss and the two finally found the team Lux and Kitty Warriors of Light.

Jan, who tries to visit Lux in his apartment, sees the remains of Lux's attempts to hang himself. Since he does not see a body, he does not know whether the attempt was successful. But he realizes that the apartment is full of hidden cameras and that Holger Brandt has long since taken over the production of the format. Holger Brandt finds a buyer for the series and has also invited Jan to an internal party. Jan comes to the celebration and sees Kitty and Lux ​​on stage and is relieved to see Lux, who was believed to be lost and even believed dead. He walks up to the two of them and realizes that it is a different person than Torsten Kachel, who is playing Lux in a mask. He wants to confront Holger Brandt and know what really happened in Lux's apartment. Although his cameraman was able to steal a USB hard drive with some of the footage from the hidden cameras from Holger Brandt's office, he could not find any incriminating material about the events in Lux's apartment and Holger Brandt could not prove that he had fabricated anything. The film ends as it began with a web video, which has less than 100 views, in which the absent-minded and desperate cameraman Marek tells his story and searches for Lux. It creates the impression that an unsuccessful cameraman is spreading conspiracy theories about a successful TV format online.

criticism

“The German film 'Lux - Warriors of Light' skillfully turns the genre on its head. You can't get a funnier and more lovable superhero in the cinema at the moment. "

- David Steinitz, Süddeutsche Zeitung

"Wild's satire is a lot of fun because it never gets lost in the overly garish joke - like Dietrich Brüggemann's 'Heil' did - and the director reveals a good gift for observation when it comes to the mechanisms of a sensation-seeking entertainment industry."

- Kaspar Heinrich, Spiegel Online

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Certificate of Release for Lux - Warriors of Light . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ The winners at Sehsuchten 2015 | Message | filmportal.de. Retrieved January 12, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Lux - Warriors of Light - press area. Retrieved January 5, 2018 .
  4. ↑ The superhero from the fruit and vegetable wholesaler. Retrieved January 5, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Superhero jedöns. Retrieved January 5, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Hof International Film Festival - Festival 2017 - Film Awards. Retrieved January 5, 2018 .