Young Florian is a fat kid but his size only seems to be an issue with Hanno his very fat dad who claims that even he wasn’t that big as a child. On the other hand Monika his mother adores him and indulges in dressing up with him in 70’s clothes and prancing around their apartment listening to the disco music of an ex-Elvis impersonator Christian Stieffen. Diving Coach Dad wants his son to train with him at the swimming pool in his leisure time, but Florian would prefer that he buy him a piano to tinkle on instead. Neither will budge an inch and then suddenly both their lives are thrown a curve ball when Monika has a brain hemorrhage and lapses into a coma. With the central force in the family dying, father and son are thrown together to try and make the best of things.
When Florian does hang out at his father’s pool he develops a crush on Rado a Romanian teenager who is training to be a diver. The two boys have a night of fun together which ends in a sleepover which Hanno spots when he comes home from a drunken spree. Determined to be a more caring parent he becomes a major embarrassment to the two young men when he attempts to clumsily embrace their sexuality before they even do.
In this decidedly endearing movie, aspiring German filmmaker Axel Ranisch who had culled some of the story from his own chubby childhood, gives a refreshing take on a working class father dealing with his son coming out as gay. Filled with humor and pathos both of them struggle with establishing a bond that must fill the enormous void left by Monika’s untimely passing. Ranisch liberally sprinkles some fantasy dream sequences throughout the movie which help to temper the reality of how tough it could have all played out if father and son had not managed to realise in time how important their own relationship was.Tender and touching, it is the oddest wee gem of a movie.
