Der Junge muss an die frische Luft

The Ruhrpott in 1972: nine-year-old Hans-Peter is a little chubby, but he doesn't let that spoil his mood. Instead, he works diligently on his great talent for making others laugh, which goes down extremely well with both the customers in his grandmother Änne's grocer's store and his equally good-humored and party-loving relatives. But then his mother Margret has an operation for chronic sinusitis and loses her sense of smell and taste, plunging her into a deep depression. His father Heinz is at a loss, but Hans-Peter feels all the more driven to develop his comedic talent.

With DER JUNGE MUSS AN DIE FRISCHE LUFT, Caroline Link adapts Hape Kerkeling's eponymous autobiographical novel about Kerkeling's childhood in Recklinghausen and his later career as one of Germany's best-known comedians and actors.