Die Summe meiner einzelnen Teile (literally: The Sum of My Single Parts; international title: Hut in the Woods)
Director: Hans Weingartner
Writer: Hans Weingartner, Cüneyt Kaya
Cast: Peter Schneider, Timur Massold, Henricke von Kuick, Andreas Leupold, Julia Jentsch

Plot:
Martin (Peter Schneider) used to be a brilliant mathematician until he had a psychotic break. But now he’s being freshly released from the psychiatric station and tries to get his feet on the ground again. But then the job his old employer promised him isn’t available after all and Martin falls into another bout of depression. His life quickly falls apart again and Martin ends up homeless and completely lost. But then he stumbles upon Viktor (Timur Massold), a ten-year old living on the streets as well who speaks only Russian. The two of them become unlikely companions.

I really enjoyed the first half of the film but then it deteriorated into a kind of naive romantizisation of mental illness and living outside the bounds of society that just didn’t ring true to me anymore.

The first half – that traces Martin’s mental development and shows his psychosis – was pitch-perfect. Not only does Weingartner obviously know what he’s talking about and manages to make it fell realistic as well, but Peter Schneider also gives an amazing performance.

I actually was with the movie completely until Viktor and Martin set up their camp in the woods. But then suddenly basically all of Martin’s symptoms disappear (because of the healing powers of life in the forest apparently), then Lena (Henricke von Kuick) invites Martin for coffee just like that – as any girl would invite the random homeless guy who has a personal letter adressed to her that she threw away; but since he thought that it was important, he had decided that she still needed it, so she obviously would invite hime for coffee out of gratituity for making life choices for her. Uhm, right. And then the plot twist [SPOILER] that Viktor existed only in Martin’s imagination [/SPOILER] just had me rolling my eyes so hard.

But since this was a Weingartner movie, I expected some kind of romantization of an alternative lifestyle – that’s kind of his thing. (See Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei. See Free Rainer.) It’s just kind of disappointing that he can’t think of any viable alternatives [because there are alternatives to our society, but I don’t think they include moving into the woods, stalking random girls and I also don’t think that mental illnesses should be part of constructing them].

Though I think I could have dealt with that a little better if he had done without Lena or had given Lena an actual character. That might have made the ending and the last third a little less annoying. Oh well. At least I enjoyed the first part.

Summarising: Maybe only watch the first half?