Absolute Giants

A view of Hamburg’s port area shrouded in a grey morning mist. Container ships drift by, we see an old Ford Granada and Floyd, Ricco and Walter. Above them, the following headline is visible: «Friendships are like desires: crazy, big, absolutely gigantic. And once they’ve got you, they don’t let go. Some of them never do.«These elements from the film Absolute Giants have helped build the modern image of the city of Hamburg. This is the story of three friends who spend their last night together before one of them has to leave the city and his youth behind. For these three friends, the rituals, trust and carefree happiness of teenage years are fading away. But instead of getting lost in a navel-gazing melancholy, the three go out into the night to make it last as long as possible before morning comes.

»Absolute Giants doesn’t rely on the trope of the tragic loser we see in recent depressing German films about doomed figures or wanderers of the night. The die is not yet cast on whether Floyd, Ricco and Walter are losers and if they win the lottery of life.» (Der Spiegel)