Why We Took the Car

On the left is the clutch – you release it very slowly and then accelerate!

“Why We Took the Car” is based on German author Wolfgang Herrndorf’s fast-paced youth novel full of surprising twists.

The protagonist of “Why We Took the Car” is Maik Klingenberg, an introverted adolescent whose home life is far from perfect. His mother loves her son, but life struggles keep her constantly absent. Maik’s stern father cares not so much about his son’s thoughts and feelings than about the impression they give their neighbours.

Maik’s mundane and rather miserable life takes an interesting turn when a Russian immigrant Andrej Tschichatschow joins his class. Ragged-looking Tschick is a crazy dude who cares about nobody’s opinion, neither his classmates nor teachers. He takes the teachers’ rebukes and his classmates’ taunts with a cool indifference. The two completely opposite boys, both as if “left out of life”, find their paths crossing. Tschick shows up unannounced at Maik’s place and proposes that they take a few turns with a “borrowed” car; feeling miserable, Maik accepts. The boys soon find themselves driving around Germany, with no mobile phones, no map and no direction. It is a journey into themselves, through the extraordinary and extremely playful situation that the boys put themselves in. It would be wrong to say that everything changes, but neither would it be right to claim that their lives do not change completely from this moment. But at first it just seems that they are in big, seriously big trouble.

Director Mirko Rajas: “It is a production for young people, but no doubt also a story by young people to their parents and others who surround and try to understand them every day. I was moved by the multilayeredness of this story and its non-judgemental approach to a young person living, thinking and being in this very moment. It is like encouragement, like a little provocation to live, to take risks, to break rules! But do it with the aim of looking for the beauty of being alive. This story opens up the inner world of young people, and addresses viewers on topics that we do not speak of every day, but that still concern every one of us.”   

Cast

Mait Joorits, Mart Müürisepp, Laura Kukk, Taavi Tõnisson