Great movie, but there is ONE mistake in my opinion: the casting
I am German, saw this movie in german (with english subtitles), and what I will come to is about the german language. So maybe I should write this whole column in german?
Aaah, no, it might be read by more people in english, and hopefully my german readers will understand enough english to get my point.
First, this movie is just great, a feel-good movie with wonderful characters, very loveable, and very funny details (like the tough threesome, these leatherboys only look tough, they are really sitting at home eating chips and get scared when at night thunder and lightning come, haha).
Now to my problem: the casting.
This movie is put into rural Westfalen, south of Dortmund. The leading character Ecki has to travel long overland in a bus, then changing into a train, to get to the big city Dortmund, where his older sister is working as a nurse. The name Boldrup (his hometown) is made up, I checked that. But in a detail you will see that when the radio reporter comes to the big game in the end, he is reporting for "Ennepe Radio" (or so), and Ennepe is existing. That's how I know where they are, south of Dortmund.
Now: how come that several actors speak EAST GERMAN prussian???
In other words: they reveal they are really from Berlin, you can tell by their pronounciation.
Well, with some characters this would not have mattered. For example, the male nurse Sven (who Ecki falls in love with), he could have been from Berlin and have moved to Dortmund. This could have been mentioned in one line to be explained. But this is not explained. But ok, it could still be possible, since Sven's character is not shown as from local Westfalen.
BUT THE OTHERS ARE.
Ecki comes from Boldrup, the made-up village in the really-existing Ennepe area south of Dortmund. His Father is a baker, and in one conversation it is said that already Ecki's Grandfather was working for 50 years in this very same family's bakery. So you can assume this family is rooted there, they did not move there after 1989, when The Wall came down.
Now, Ecki's Mother speaks high german, but in one or two scenes you can hear she has at least lived long time in Berlin. You can hear it.
This could still be explained like, she married into this Westfalian baker's family. Ok.
But how come that Ecki's older sister is from East Germany???? THAT IS MY PROBLEM HERE.
While you can make up some weird explanations why Ecki's Mother speaks Berlin, and his new boyfriend speaks Berlin, there is no logical explanation why his older sister grew up with him and their family in rural Ennepe area and then ends up speaking Berlin. She moved to Dortmund, not Berlin!
For those who have no idea what I am talking about: imagine a rural family in Virginia, and their oldest daughter moves from their local village to the big city, to Richmond. But when her brother visits her there, she doesn't speak like Richmond people speak, instead she speaks like somebody from Queens or Long Island. This is exactly what happened here!
So, let's not pretend there is a hair-splitting explanation why some characters grew up in the rural west and speak like Berlin (in the east). There is no explanation, the fault was made in the casting. They hired eastern actors, that's all there's to it. That is the explanation.
While professional actors learn how to speak high german and not to reveal where they grew up, nowadays actors are not learning their profession anymore. Private TV producers like RTL, Sat 1 etc give a damn about details like that, they hire good-looking people found in the local malls and give them jobs in their cheaply-made TV-soaps.
This is such a shame to all real actors who have spent years to learn how to sit right, how to walk right, how to speak, how to breath etc.
The few professionals in this movie are NOT revealing where they are from. Rolf Zacher, Mariele Millowitsch, Dietmar Baer and that actor playing Udo (the homophobic dumb-ass) are not at all giving away where they once grew up. You cannot tell by their German. They are pros, obviously.
But all these goodlooking young talents, they try to speak high german, but their prussian pronounciation gives it away.
Now you may say this is just a detail, yes, but a disturbing detail. Go back to my example with rural girl from Virginia moving to Richmond and then speaking New York slang. THAT would anger you too, woudn't it???
Oh yeah, that cute 8-year-old son of one of the leather-threesome: he also is from the East. He is really cute, and there is nothing wrong with his acting. But why pretend he is from Dortmund when he comes from Berlin?