The movie opens with effectively establishing our protagonist Markus who lives a complex and conflicted character. He lives what appears to be a normal life until we see him self-pleasuring himself with images of boys on his computer. Markus is presented with having a well organized apartment. There’s a family photo with what appears to be his sister and a mom and dad, so the typical family.
The movie portrays Markus’ life as quite mundane: he lives alone, is pretty self-sufficient (cooks his own food), regularly uses public transportation, and maintains a regular fitness regimen (works out and boxes at the public gym). We learn that he is a successful architect. We see him walking by a soccer field and noticing the boys playing. Despect his deep secrets we see that he does have a social life: a woman asks him if he’d like to hang out later, he declines. Has friends at the gym who invite him to socialize. While he’s washing up in the public shower he looks at another man washing up. Is he trying to find him attractive? One can only guess, but obviously to his dismay it’s unsuccessful. I guess I should also point out how conventionally attractive he is.
The first time I watched this movie I didn’t even notice but after reading some of the comments off of a youtube video showing a scene from this movie, I realized this actor has quite the number of fangirls. On the side note, can I just say how much I love the German language and accents? Because I do, it’s one of the things I absolutely love about watching films in another language. It sounds so beautiful and exotic.