The Swarmers

Germany2022fiction30'Międzynarodowy konkurs filmów krótkometrażowych (2022)

A prestigious boarding school, the anxieties of adolescence, competition and a teenager who refuses to be a victim. Karla takes a stand against the tradition of hazing at the Sankt Severin school, organised with the tacit approval of the school management. She gets into a conflict with her friend, which leads to further consequences. Beneath the surface there are even more problems hiding. This non-obvious, dense and formally intriguing film was inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s 1902 short story ‘Die Turnstunde’ about military school students. The director enters into a dialogue with the literary original and transfers the events to the present. All this happens amidst the buzzing of a bee swarm, not the only one in the story.