''Absolute Giganten'' is a 1999 German

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by

Sebastian Schipper Sebastian Schipper (born 8 May 1968) is a German actor and filmmaker. Life and career Sebastian Schipper studied acting at the Otto Falckenberg Schule in Munich from 1992 to 1995. He got his first film role in Sönke Wortmann's '' Little Sharks' ...

, produced by

Stefan Arndt Stefan Arndt (born 1961) is a German film producer and managing partner of X Filme Creative Pool, which he started with fellow friends Tom Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker and Dani Levy. X Filme is one of Germany's most prosperous and famous production c ...

and

Tom Tykwer Tom Tykwer (; born 23 May 1965) is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, and composer. He is best known internationally for directing the thriller films ''Run Lola Run'' (1998), ''Heaven (2002 film), Heaven'' (2002), ''Perfume: The Sto ...

. Set in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, it depicts how a group of young Germans react to the prospect of one of them leaving forever, and involves drinking, V8 engines, and an extraordinary game of

table football Table football, known as foosball or table soccer in North America, is a tabletop game loosely based on association football. Its objective is to move the ball into the opponent's Scoring in association football, goal by manipulating rods whic ...

. It was Schipper's first movie as a director. In the year 2000 the movie won the

German Film Award The German Film Award (), also known as Lola after its prize statuette, is the national film award of Germany. It is presented at an annual ceremony honouring cinematic achievements in the Cinema of Germany, German film industry. Besides being ...

in the category Outstanding Feature Film.

Cast

Frank Giering Frank Giering (23 November 1971 – 23 June 2010) was a German actor. Biography Giering studied at the HFF Potsdam. He starred in a production of '' The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole'' and was cast by Austrian filmmaker, Michael Haneke for the ...

as Floyd *

Florian Lukas Florian Lukas (16 March 1973) is a German actor from Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it ...

as Ricco * Antoine Monot, Jr. as Walter *

Julia Hummer Julia Hummer (born 24 April 1980) is a German actress and singer. She has appeared in more than twenty films since her career began in 1999. Selected filmography References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hummer, Julia 1980 births Li ...

as Telsa * Jochen Nickel as Snake * as Elvis * Guido A. Schick as Dulle *

Silvana Bosi Silvana Bosi (23 July 1934 – 10 August 2020) was an Italian actress. Biography Bosi was born in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna. Bosi appeared in dozens of European, mostly Italian, films and television programs between 1987 and 2019. She usually p ...

as Walter's Grandma

Reception

The film was generally well-received by German critics. The American film critic Eric D. Snider wrote that the film "has the sort of world-weary, melancholy bleakness we've come to expect from that country, while at the same time infusing energy and vigor into filmmaking as an art form. This is a pitifully touching film, uplifting for its intrinsic beauty even while evoking sadness for the characters."Eric D. Snider's review at E-Filmcritic
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External links

References

1999 films 1999 romantic comedy-drama films 1990s action comedy-drama films 1990s German films 1990s German-language films Films directed by Sebastian Schipper Films produced by Tom Tykwer Films set in Hamburg German action comedy-drama films German romantic comedy-drama films German-language comedy-drama films Films produced by Stefan Arndt {{1990s-comedy-drama-film-stub