Adam

Windows thrown wide open, the music of Adam’s mother reverberates across the Berlin courtyard. The heavy bass makes him feel connected to her. Other than that, the worlds of the hearing-impaired young man and his techno producer mum seldom overlap. She’s ill, hospitalised with irreversible brain damage due to alcohol abuse, according to the doctors. Adam is left to fend for himself. He manages to forge connections in the outside world, falls in love and sets out in search of his father. With each step he is dogged by his mother’s wish to be put out of her misery should she become unable to care for herself. Adam copes with all this in his very own, laconic way and director Maria Solrun gives him a voice and plenty of space to grow. (Berlinale)