ARD documentary “18+ Germany”

widthHat inspires young Germans who will be able to vote for the first time this year? Do they even vote? What are your expectations, plans, and goals for your life, and what does politics have to do with them? The 90-minute documentary “18+Germany” by Lukas Ratius and Philipp Majer attempts to solve these questions and answers through observation. He follows the five protagonists, three men and two women, from spring 2020 to summer 2021, showing their daily life, family, friends and living conditions, and repeatedly interspersed with them talking about dreams and fears, and talking about the future. And their relationship with Germany, the country and Germany, and their hometown.

If you accept the clichés of patriarchal Muslim women one-on-one, the confident Doha from Berlin can be annoying. “18+” accompanied them to prepare for the wedding, barbecue with the extended family, and decorate the young couple’s first apartment of their own. In the feminist women’s boxing club, she is more veiled than a student, where she serves as a coach. For Doha Boxing, boxing is a way of life, as important as tradition, she spoke eloquently of modern possession in front of the camera.

Just like Doha, Eric knew what he wanted from Essen. Move to Uckermark, work, house, wife, children, although you can’t force a woman to do this. He has little to say about his experience at school, especially with classmates from large mobile families. Eric tackles old-age poverty and pension gaps. The cycling scene taught him values, and maybe he wants to sign up for the armed forces, including expatriate missions. Yannick from near Freiburg tells about his life, his city, racism and discrimination. He dreams of becoming a musician, making videos, and wanting to build a house with his girlfriend in his mother’s hometown of Togo, but wants to stay in Germany permanently.

Laura lives in Rott am Inn, and as she said, she is a real country boy. A young woman cutting trees and driving cattle to a mountain pasture. For her, her parents’ marriage is a role model. She already has a dream job as a farmer. The year she originally planned to stay in Canada was cancelled due to the new crown virus, which is not bad. Jacob, who grew up in Zwickau, was doing his Abitur at the beginning of the film, moving to a shared apartment in Halle to study politics and sociology. Even when he was a teenager, he actively broke the law, and later became a green youth, for the future Friday and recent black life issues. For him, political participation is the most important task in life, at least for now. The five of them already knew where their journey should go. Everyone understands that their self-realization ideas also depend on the framework conditions that this state will bring to them.