Die Mitte der Welt

When a film can describe everything your currently going through without doing too much...means alot. The emptiness you feel when you are seeing someone who is not giving them all to you and you feel as if you can lost them at any moment. The horrific feeling it feels when you realize that they are into someone else and that you were just a passing moment (an effective moment but still a passing one). I love this film. Amazing acting, beautiful cast and lots of hot scenes with the actors. BRAVO.

A film like a spring wind. warm, fresh, nice, refreshing. a story about love, life, teens, family. not perfect - to critic it becomes real temptanting - but having few good points - from atmosphere to actors. so, a nice film with few lovely scenes. sure, it could be better. but it is , from start, not the object of high expectations. for many reasons. first - it propose cut boys, eccentric feminine characters, a not awfull story and reasonable balancce between present and past. and something escaping from precise definition. a feeling, slices of pure, honest joy, memories and traits of storm, dialogues and relations who are pieces of a puzzle who could be more complex . but, it is a refreshing film. and this, for me, is the most important thing for me.

I've read the book some years ago. I remember being fascinated by the almost fantasy-like world in which our hero and his family live. They are funny, warmhearted, easygoing and freewheeling -and there is some magic secret waiting to be uncovered. And the strange boy has secrets too and is shrouded in mysteries. In the film almost all of the females are shrill borderline cases, acting way over the top most of the time. Our hero is weak willed and confused (which is okay for a teenager coming of age) and must be constantly advised and be comforted by those females who can't master their own affairs. The other boy comes across as a blunt, sexy, needy and selfish guy without any mystery in his life. Being gay myself I appreciate the nicely filmed sex-scenes (guys have sex in the nude and are not covered in linen and shorts like their american brothers ). Louis Hofmann and Jannik Schümann are believable in their roles (as the director sees them) but the MAGIC which hovers about them in the book can't be felt here.

The German film Die Mitte der Welt was shown in the U.S. with the translated title Center of My World (2016). It was written and directed by Jakob M. Erwa.

This movie can be interpreted in many ways. It's a coming of age movie, a gay love story, and a melodrama with many twists and turns.

Louis Hofmann plays Phil, a gay young man, who is looking for a boyfriend-lover-partner. Jannik Schümann plays Nicholas, who is handsome and athletic, and becomes Phil's boyfriend and lover, if not partner. Both Hofman and Schümann are fine young actors, and they do admirable work in this film. Also involved in the plot is Phil's twin sister, who may or may not have some special powers.

For me, however, the acting honors go to Sabine Timoteo as Glass, Phil's mother. She brings men into the family, and then sends them away, with devastating results to her children. Timoteo brings acting skills that allow her to inhabit this role. You can't take your eyes off her as she lives--and messes up--her life and the lives of others. She always tells just enough of the story to make you aware that she knows more than she tells.

The film will work well on the small screen.

To start with, I completely disagree with a previous 2/10 review.

"Center of my world" / "Die Mitte der Welt" was and is one of my most beloved novels I first read end of the 90ies shortly before it has been released. It's a wonderful book I always return to. I didn't know how it could be brought to screen - until now.

When I first saw the trailer I was already roped back into the world of Steinhöfels book. I needed to see this film and I did on the first weekend. While they removed several parallel and back stories of the book to create a better narration for the screen, they managed to keep the dreamy atmosphere of the book for the whole 2 hours. The main cast is more than perfect, from Louis Hofmann as Phil to Sabine Timeteo as his mother, to Jannik Schürmann as Nicholas. I fell in love with each of them. The setting in the small town and the enchanted home of the "different" family was a perfect match to the tone and style of the story. It was wonderful to live, laugh and cry with the characters throughout, a very emotional, dreamy, wonderful journey, accompanied with a beautiful soundtrack. The love story between the two main characters blew me away, so real, intimate and wonderful to watch.

I didn't see any other film this year that I embraced so much like "Die Mitte der Welt". Maybe I will see it a second time in the cinema but the Blu-ray will be on my shelves on day one. Go and watch it, it won't get better this year.