Oi! Warning

The German skinhead flick, OI! WARNING, was very well received by the public at the Sao Paulo Mostra de Cinema in October 1999. The film written, directed and produced by German twins Dominik and Benjamin Reding, was presented twice, proving itself once again as an audience favorite. It had already won the Air Canada People Award at the 1999 Montreal World Film Festival, and the 1999 Outstanding Emerging Talent Award given by the Directors' Guild of America. The film deals with Janosch, a 17 year old who abandons his Lake Constance home for industrial Dortmund to join Koma, a brewery worker, who is among other things, a kickboxer and skinhead. Janosch is fascinated by Koma, and imitates his lifestyle. After a series of event s, Koma swears revenge on a guy who allegedly burns down his second home. Instead of going all out for revenge too, Janosch sleeps with the supposed culprit, and Koma is a witness to this night of passion. Now Koma's revenge will be very different. The plot therefore throws a new twist into the skinhead flick genre. We now have the bi or gay skinhead flick. As a "szene," as the Germans call it, gay skinheads have existed for years in Berlin, for example. This, however, is the first film to touch the subject. And for that, and the hard work of the Reding twins alone, "Oi! Warning" is worth watching.

Oi Warning is a film not to be viewed by the faint of heart. The characters of this story inhabit a brutal, unpredictable world. The Germany it depicts is summoned up as an industrial wasteland; bleak and soulless. We can only expect that the characters must reflect this depressing environment. We are introduced to Janosch (Backhaus), an insecure boy, who comes to manhood by studying the behavior of his peer, Koma (Simon Goerts). Janosch is then offered the chance to prove his masculinity via initiation into the skinhead lifestyle. Yet Janosch has a need both to prove himself, and to be closely involved with men. It is not socially acceptable for him to be out of the closet, the film seems to argue, and so he must achieve this homosocial intimacy through membership in the all-male, skinhead community. The dialogue does seem unlikely at times, particularly from the character of Koma. Yet the actors' emotive delivery redeems these awkward moments in the script. Jens Vieth portrays the only truly likeable character in the film. Zottel represents an alternative masculinity; one that is not dependent on aggression and domination. He takes life as it is, without needing to control it. Janosch begins to learn from Zottel's example. However, the angst of Oi Warning lies in the fact that Janosch has learned his lesson of maturity a moment too late.

Another point:

Someone who does not know anything about skins could, after watching the movie, think that they are another kind of national socialists. Only the lyrics of the performing bands show their a-politic attitude, but not their behavior. (Violence, homophobic behavior, "comradeship", etc..).

I'm nobody who cares about political correctness, but if you want to show the inside of a scene like this, you have to SHOW their treatments!

Otherwise I agree to Idefix.

Everyone who wants to see this should be prepared that "Oi! Warning" is no Hollywood-cliché like "American History X" which deals with a predictable "bad-skinhead-becomes-imprisoned-makes-friendship-with-a-negro-and-turns-to-good-man"-plot. This movie is pure realism, almost like a documentary! The film is shot in black/white, sometimes the pictures are pretty elegant and stylish, often very similar to a video clip. Mainly this film is a portrait about a fascinating but dangerous subculture yet. However, "Oi! Warning" is too objective to deal with old-fashioned clichés, because it shows them skinheads as men who believe in there lifestyle and their ideals. Don´t think of searching any pseudo-moral or comments, I promise, you won´t find it here! A very good film with an explosive theme and a provoking un-happy ending!!

a movie about a joung german boy who doesn't know where he belongs. he leaves home and meets a neo-nazi, a girl and later a punk. he adopts habits and opinions very fast, but finding out what he really wants turn out to be difficult.

there are a lot of very strange but nevertheless quite realistic characters in the movie, and they all scare you in a different way - even the boring parents who lost any grasp of reality.

the film is black&white, with a lot of beautiful images. but i think some of the motives have only made it into the film 'cause they were beauty, not 'cause they had to do a lot with it. a good film, i recommend watching it.

it seems that the film has really shaken the scene in some cities, i know there were some fights between skins and punks in cinemas in düsseldorf (germany), with a damaged cinema.