Hauptrolle

A group of people talk about very different subjects, including a strange course that one of them has just completed. There is tension in the air, although it is not quite clear why. They give the impression that they are killing time while waiting for a job that everyone needs for different reasons. Are they actors looking for a role?

Naive, talkative Hoffi and mouthy Lehmi are as different as can be. But this doesn't dampen their friendship. When they wake up one morning in the middle of Dortmund Zoo instead of in their beds among the water buffaloes, it doesn't upset them, because the orderly lives of their fellow human beings aren't their thing anyway. What's much worse is that Hoffi has got it into his head to get a birthday present for his sister on this beautiful summer's day of all days, when you could actually be relaxing in the park with a crate of beer. The two lovable slobs embark on an odyssey through the city, at the end of which they lose sight of the present but have found their dream girls.

The Pickles family welcome a new arrival, Dil, whose constant crying and need for attention quickly exhaust the other toddlers. Seeking to return the "broken" baby to the hospital, the gang embarks on a journey in a Reptar Wagon that inadvertently veers off course, leaving them stranded in a vast, dangerous forest. While facing off against escaped circus monkeys and a predatory wolf, Tommy must overcome his own resentment to protect his brother and make it back home.

The subject of male prostitution gets a distinctly zany and offbeat twist in Stellungswechsel (AKA Special Escort), Maggie Peren's tale of five male underdogs who promulgate themselves as female escorts in the city of Munich. Of that group, we meet policeman Gy, in hot water with his insurance company and enduring the vicissitudes of an on-again, off-again romance with comely Daphne; twentysomething Lasse, who lives with his mom and is pathetically henpecked by her; Giselher, a chronically unemployed former manager; Frank, a philologist who spends his days as a house husband; and Olli, a deli proprietor whose business is rapidly going under. These five conjure up the wild idea of charging for liaisons with emotionally needy women, but the scheme doesn't exactly go as planned - as none can even begin to anticipate the eccentricities or oddities of the female clients who turn up in response to their offer.