Do Fish Do It?

Colour, 35mm
Germany, 2002, 103 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Timid 16-year-old Jan and energetic Nina, 15, meet one day when they literally run into each other on the street. The boy’s head wound is merely the first of the injuries and joyful moments that Nina brings into his life. Discussing their unsatisfactory family situations brings the two closer together: Nina lives with her brother, father and the latter’s young girlfriend who is more a pal than a substitute mother. Jan comes from an outwardly ideal family environment, but he feels estranged and only he and his grandfather see eye to eye. He soon succeeds in filling his new friend with enthusiasm for his imaginary underwater world: a place where he takes refuge from reality. Slowly their friendship transforms into tender feelings of love; it’s not only fish that are touched by sexual longing. Together, Jan and Nina escape into a dark, quiet and safe imaginary world, but they are unable to ward off the advent of tragedy….

About the director

Almut Christiane Getto (b. 1964, Kandel, Germany) studied communications, political science and sociology in Munich, then began working as a television writer for various German public and private broadcasters. In 1995-99 she studied film and television at the Academy of Media Arts KHM in Cologne, graduating with Spots & Stripes (1998/99), which won the Special Jury Prizes at St. Petersburg and Giffoni (Italy), the Audience Award Short Cuts at Cologne and the Best Family Prize at Seoul. Her other films include Marlis Goes to Rock (1996, short), I Don’t Like the Sun Anymore (1996, Mit der Sonne habe ich es eh nicht, short), as well as numerous television essays and reports. In 2002 she debuted as writer-director with Do Fish Do It?, which in the same year won the Filmpreis des saarländischen Ministerpräsidenten at the Max Ophüls Film Festival.