Cappy Leit

Cappy Leit begins at a family´s breakfast table. Obviously bored, 14-year-old Theres discusses with her father the fact that she was out too late the night before.
The expected argument does not develop. Instead, the camera makes a statement by pairing brother and sister in a medium close-up. "I love you, I love you, I love you," can be heard from the radio. Theres has more important problems than "midnight" or "twelve thirty"; she is in love with her older brother Jakob. Marie Kreutzer´s film avoids stereotypes of teenagers. Instead of proceeding from the assumption that having problems is simply part of being 14, the protagonists are shown in the context of their everyday lives. The camera follows Theres (Pauline Reiner), remaining close to her body, her gestures and the objects of her attention. We get to know Theres as the center of a dual realm of symbols in which "banana milkshake" and "ice cream" signify childhood, while "smoking Marlboros" and "shaving your legs" stand for the new adult life. Theres and her friends are teenagers who order a child´s drink with the gestures of an adult: "Cappy Leit" is an orange-flavored beverage mixed with tap water.
In this transitional world, Theres attaches her emotions to a constant factor, the brother she loves. Cappy Leit does not offer any solutions. And it ends with a symbolic misunderstanding: "Do you want some ice cream?" asks her brother, and she fails to answer.

(Maya McKechneay)