LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL 2024 REVIEW! Summer is magical as a young adult. We never realize it, but it’s all downhill from there, isn’t it? The sensation of summertime bliss is just one of the many feelings that director Willy Hans attempts to capture (directly or indirectly) in Der Fleck (Skill Issue). It’s a work that brings us back to the days when we had the freedom to lounge around in a forest with friends. This is not your standard summer vacation coming-of-age tale, though. Hans takes us along on a strange odyssey through space and time that feels exactly like something an experimental filmmaker would make.
Our journey begins and ends with Simon. He’s what one could call a standard adolescent. Socially awkward and gangly, we know the type (perhaps some viewers were even like him at one point). One afternoon, he is invited to join a group of German adolescents at a local forest. The bucolic setting is intoxicating for Simon (and the viewer). He doesn’t seem to mesh with the group at first, but after taking a soccer ball to the face, he slowly forms a bond with one of the girls, and they spend the rest of the idyllic summer day together.
That’s it. That’s what happens in Der Fleck. No grand narrative statements or sweeping melodrama. Just German youth hanging out in the woods without an abundance of exposition. Hans does excel, though, in heightening the pervasive sense of loneliness that surrounds the group. They feel somewhat disconnected from themselves and each other, although the pastoral setting adds a degree of solace to their seemingly aimless existence. The film is an audio and visual delight, with the greens of the trees and the sounds of nature serving to remind all of us of summer.

“…begins and ends with Simon… he is invited to join a group of German adolescents at a local forest…”
Interspersed amongst the disconnected interactions are strange sequences of the forest apart from the characters. The peaceful images of nature almost become sinister, or at they at the very least remind viewers of the power and permanence of nature. It will be there long after Simon and his cohorts are done having an impromptu rave in true German fashion. Our own impermanence becomes an undeniable aspect of these images.
I imagine these sequences will be a dividing line with viewers. Those coming into Der Fleck expecting a warm coming-of-age tale will probably react with mild disdain at the surrealist turn. More adventurous filmgoers will embrace the radical shifts in tone as part of a work aiming for more profound meaning. Either way, most should appreciate the effort toward transcending a more vanilla tale of summer malaise.
Der Fleck may be missing that narrative oomph that can mesh cleanly with the more atmospheric elements, but it’s nevertheless compelling. To better state the case in more colloquial terminology, Hans’ film is all about vibes, and maybe that unscientific descriptor is the best way to approach the movie. This won’t work for traditional audiences, but adventurous cinephiles will find much to appreciate in the poignant establishment of mood.
Der Fleck screened at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival.