Three boys at the beginning of their adolesence.

"Der Rattenkönig" is a real gem among the slew of trivial adolescent films. In glowing black and white pictures, Pawel Kocambasi tells a story about three boys and the puzzling phase between the last milk tooth and the first braces. Despite the precise and reserved portrayal, Kocambasi and his cameraman Jens Harant managed to tinge the brilliant images with a gentle melancholy. In addition to Kocambasi, who graduated from the Ludwigsburg Film Academy, the real discoveries in the film are the three young actors, who give their characters great depth with seeming affected.—cologne conference