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Film Festivals: Slackers (2025) by Sorina Gajewski: Berlin Summer, Lost Youth, and the Art of Becoming

Two Friends, One Hot Berlin Summer

A hazy, sun-soaked snapshot of post-graduation drift, Sorina Gajewski’s Nulpen (also known internationally as Slackers) captures a generation suspended between apathy and awakening. Set in a restless Berlin summer, the film follows two young women navigating the aimlessness of early adulthood with humor, defiance, and quiet grace. With its naturalistic tone and nods to 1990s American indie cinema, Nulpen is both a love letter to youthful confusion and a sharp portrait of female friendship in a politically charged city.

When Ramona (Bella Lochmann) and Nico (Pola Geiger) accidentally break their neighbor’s window with a slingshot, they set off a chain of small misadventures that propel them into the chaotic pulse of Berlin. Fresh out of school, without ambition or a plan, the girls wander through the city’s humid streets — evading consequences, releasing a beloved neighbor’s bird, and chasing vague dreams of freedom.

Their days unfold in a haze of heat, rebellion, and growing self-awareness. Along the way, they encounter an ensemble of eccentric Berliners — street magicians, young activists, a local priest, a would-be musician — each reflecting a different facet of the city’s restless identity.

Beneath its minimalist surface, Nulpen tells a tender, quietly radical story about friendship, identity, and the uncertain poetry of becoming an adult.

Why to Watch This Movie: A Raw, Real Slice of Modern Youth

Nulpen stands out as one of the most authentic portraits of post-school limbo in recent European cinema — part character study, part social observation.

  • Intimate realism: Shot with documentary-like immediacy on Berlin’s streets, capturing the city’s authentic textures.

  • Feminine perspective: A deeply felt depiction of female friendship, rarely seen with such honesty and humor.

  • Berlin as a state of mind: Moves beyond tourist clichés, revealing the city’s contradictions — political, playful, poetic.

  • Influence of 1990s American indie cinema: Echoes Richard Linklater’s Slacker and early Chloé Zhao naturalism.

  • Emotionally resonant: Evokes the disorientation of growing up with empathy and understated beauty.

It’s a small film with a big heart — one that understands that sometimes, drifting is a form of direction.

Where to watch (festival period only): https://online.filmfestival.gr/film/rempela-slackers/ (from 30 October to 9th November), https://pro.festivalscope.com/film/slackers (industry professionals)

What Is the Trend Followed: European Slow Cinema Meets Gen Z Realism

Nulpen taps into a broader cinematic wave redefining youth storytelling — rejecting moral lessons in favor of lived experience.

  • Neo-indie revival: Inspired by the lo-fi aesthetic of 1990s American indies and the quiet authenticity of modern European realism.

  • Female-centered narratives: Following the success of films like Aftersun and How to Have Sex, this one explores femininity as fluid growth.

  • Urban authenticity: Berlin is not idealized but shown in its real, messy, multicultural vibrancy.

  • Generation Alpha perspective: A voice of the new youth — politically aware yet emotionally unmoored.

  • Minimal plot, maximal feeling: Focused on mood, moments, and emotional undercurrents rather than conventional story arcs.

Gajewski belongs to a new wave of German filmmakers crafting intimate, sensory portraits of youth that feel both political and personal.

Movie Plot: Friendship, Flight, and Freedom

  • The Setup: Ramona and Nico, best friends freshly out of school, spend their days lounging, joking, and avoiding responsibility. (Trend: post-adolescent inertia as poetic rebellion.)

  • The Incident: A slingshot accident shatters a neighbor’s window — and their carefree routine.

  • The Flight: As they try to evade trouble, they release a neighbor’s pet bird, setting off an unexpected journey through Berlin’s streets.

  • The Encounters: From street preachers to artists to lost friends, each meeting pushes them toward self-awareness.

  • The Transformation: In searching for the bird — and Ramona’s missing brother — they rediscover each other, their strength, and the fragile beauty of independence.

What begins as a summer of laziness becomes a gentle, bittersweet odyssey of becoming.

Director’s Vision: Sorina Gajewski’s Poetic Realism

Writer-director Sorina Gajewski, a graduate of the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB), brings a lyrical yet grounded touch to her debut feature.

  • Tone: Dreamlike realism — where the everyday becomes quietly transcendent.

  • Cinematography: Natural lighting, handheld cameras, and long takes immerse viewers in the girls’ emotional rhythm.

  • Sound design: The hum of Berlin — trams, chatter, and heat — replaces traditional scoring, creating sensory intimacy.

  • Visual aesthetic: Muted tones and slow pacing evoke the languor of summer and the aimlessness of youth.

  • Narrative rhythm: Reflects the meandering nature of teenage days — structure as drift, movement as meaning.

Gajewski’s filmmaking is not about answers but about the beauty of uncertainty itself.

Themes: Identity, Friendship, and the Freedom of Not Knowing

Nulpen uses its small story to explore universal questions about growing up in a world of contradictions.

  • Friendship as foundation: The emotional core lies in Ramona and Nico’s evolving bond — tender, volatile, inseparable.

  • Coming of age as process: Growing up isn’t a decision — it’s something that happens in motion.

  • City as mirror: Berlin reflects youth’s contradictions — vibrant yet lost, open yet suffocating.

  • Female agency: Depicts young women as subjects of their own story, not as moral examples.

  • Freedom through detachment: Sometimes rebellion looks like doing nothing — and that’s okay.

Ultimately, the film celebrates the quiet courage of youth — the bravery to simply exist without direction.

Main Factors Behind Its Impact: Realism, Emotion, and Generational Honesty

  • Authentic performances: The young cast brings unfiltered emotion and lived-in realism.

  • Minimalism as strength: Every scene feels like a fragment of life, not a performance.

  • Social resonance: Reflects a generation caught between climate anxiety, identity politics, and digital overstimulation.

  • Cultural honesty: Berlin shown from the ground — not as myth, but as mosaic.

  • Philosophical undertone: Suggests that becoming is an act of resistance in itself.

Nulpen doesn’t lecture — it listens. And in doing so, it captures the soul of youth today.

Awards & Recognition: Festival Discovery

  • 🎬 Official Selection – Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival 2025

  • 🥇 Nominated – Best Debut Feature (Germany)

  • 🌍 Screened at Gijón International Film Festival (FICX 63)

  • ✨ Praised for Direction & Ensemble Cast

Critics and audiences alike have celebrated it as one of the most promising German debuts of 2025 — “an authentic generational statement in miniature.”

Critics Reception: Subtle, Soulful, and Strikingly Real

  • Cineuropa: “A touching debut that channels Linklater’s Slacker spirit through the soul of Berlin.”

  • Der Tagesspiegel: “Gajewski gives aimlessness poetic weight — Nulpen hums with life, laughter, and loss.”

  • Filmstarts.de: “Beautifully acted, unpretentious, and deeply relatable.”

  • Variety (Festival review): “A minimalist ode to youth and city life — gentle but unforgettable.”

Overall: A modest masterpiece of feeling and form — a debut that announces a bold new voice in European cinema.

Theatrical Release: When and Where

  • Release Date: January 21, 2025 (Germany)

  • Runtime: 1h 15m (75 minutes)

  • Country: Germany

  • Language: German

  • Filming Location: Berlin, Germany

  • Production Company: Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB)

Movie Trend: From Slackers to Seekers — The New Youth Cinema

Nulpen follows the trend of "post-coming-of-age" films — stories where characters don’t find answers but learn to live inside uncertainty.

Like Aftersun or Girl Picture, it explores intimacy, confusion, and identity through naturalism rather than narrative resolution.The film’s title (“Slackers”) reclaims idleness as an act of quiet rebellion — a protest against a world obsessed with productivity.

Social Trend: Generation Alpha and the Politics of Stillness

In an era where youth are expected to be hyper-aware, hyper-productive, and hyper-political, Nulpen stands out as a film about slowing down — about existing beyond hashtags, movements, and expectations.

Ramona and Nico’s wanderings mirror a broader truth: for many young people, simply being is the most radical thing left to do.

Final Verdict: A Tender Rebellion of Youth

Nulpen is small but luminous — a film that lingers like a summer memory. With its natural performances, drifting rhythm, and emotional honesty, Sorina Gajewski crafts a story both deeply personal and universally resonant.

It’s not a film about growing up — it’s a film about realizing you’re already in the middle of it.

A quiet triumph of contemporary German cinema — sincere, searching, and unforgettably human.

Similar Movies: For Fans of Dreamy, Realistic Youth Stories

  • Slacker (1991) – Richard Linklater’s meandering classic on young idealists.

  • Girl Picture (2022) – Honest, intimate portrait of female friendship.

  • Aftersun (2022) – Nostalgic, emotional exploration of memory and identity.

  • 25 km/h (2018) – German road movie about rediscovery and freedom.

  • Oh Boy (2012) – A day in the life of a drifting Berliner.

  • The World of Us (2016) – Delicate exploration of young friendship and belonging.

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