From Germany, this sensual coming-of-age drama starts with a warm, almost comical tone, then quietly shifts into something much, much darker. By the end, the audience has been taken on a journey that’s downright harrowing, which is a little jarring. But the film has a raw honesty to it that’s mesmerising.
The story centres on Phil (Louis Hofmann), who sees himself as a normal small-town gay teen. He has a colourful best friend in Kat (Svenja Jung) and lives with his free-thinking mother Glass (Sabine Timoteo) and artistic twin sister Dianne (Ada Philine Stappenbeck). After being at camp for the summer, he returns home to find everything changed. A storm has smashed up the forest and his mother and sister are acting very strangely. Then he spots hot new boy Nicholas (Jannik Schumann) at school, and Phil can’t help but fall for him.
Writer-director Jacob Erwa lets events unfurl in an earthy, natural way that’s echoed in almost unnervingly realistic performances. These are likeable people who all have intriguing shadows around them. The biggest question for Phil and Dianne is their paternity, as their mother has never told them who their father is. And there are other events from their past that haunt them. But the story is told through Phil’s perspective, and he simply doesn’t have all the facts.
The blossoming romance between Phil and Nicholas is very nicely played by Hofmann and Schumann, from the early flirtation to some properly steamy intimacy. Jung and Stappenbeck have sparkier roles as young women who are full of attitude, constantly stirring things up. And Timoteo brings a looseness to her nonconformist character that seems to be a mask for a whole lot of denial.
In other words, this is the kind of film that is sunny and light on the surface, but gets increasingly heavy as the layers are peeled back. So the elation of the sexy romance between Phil and Nicholas gives way to some seriously grim nastiness. But the film has a lot to say about how important it is for us to be vulnerable and empathise with the people around us. And also how we need to take a risk and do something about the issues in our lives if we hope to move forward.
****
SPECIAL EVENT: There is a special Q&A screening with director Jakob M. Erwa on Friday 15th September at 6.30pm at Picturehouse Central, corner of Great Windmill Street and Shaftesbury Avenue, Piccadilly Circus.
Centre Of My World is available DVD and VOD from Matchbox Films.
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