Blutsfreundschaft (Initiation) (2009)

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Two people whose lives have been scarred by organized hate are brought together by chance in this drama from filmmaker Peter Kern. Axel (Harry Lampl) is a handsome but troubled sixteen-year-old boy who comes from a broken home, has trouble connecting with his peers and dulls his anxieties with… More Two people whose lives have been scarred by organized hate are brought together by chance in this drama from filmmaker Peter Kern. Axel (Harry Lampl) is a handsome but troubled sixteen-year-old boy who comes from a broken home, has trouble connecting with his peers and dulls his anxieties with marijuana. Axel has fallen in with a neo-Nazi gang who give him the respect he craves, but Lippi (Michael Steinocher), their leader, demands proof of Axel's commitment to their ideals, and he's ordered to stab a social worker who runs a soup kitchen for immigrants. Axel ends up killing the man, and while on the run from the police, he hides in a dry cleaning shop and is spotted by the elderly proprietor, Gustav (Helmut Berger). Gustav takes in the young man and allows him to help out in the shop, but doesn't tell Axel why -- Gustav is gay, and the young man bears a striking resemblance to a boy he loved when he was a teenager but inadvertently betrayed to the Nazis during World War II. When Lippi and his gang discover Axel has made friends with a homosexual, they're angry that he's gone against their principles, and Axel is caught between two different worlds in which he isn't sure he belongs. Blutsfreundschaft (aka Initiation) was an official selection at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi