Lowering the Flag 🗽

12 Days:

Matthias Schweighöfer in

Friendship (2010)

It's 1989 and while all of Germany is celebrating the German Reunification, Veit and Tom set off for America with nothing more than a 100 Deutsch Marks "welcoming money" in their pocket. They are trying to find Veit's Dad who fled long before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Although 2010's Friendship is a German/American film, the location and the story are definitely all American.  Directed by Markus Goller, the movie has a familiar theme.  You know the one where the stranger, the foreigner, even the alien from outer space arrive in the United States.  They don't know the language, the customs or the culture.

In this case, the 'stranger' are Veit, (Friedrich Mücke) and Tom, (Matthias Schweighöfer) two friends we meet at the beginning of the film.  The first few scenes take place in Germany, and in those few scenes, we see Veit and Tom's first meeting, and quickly understand why they became friends.  We also find out that 'friendship' was the first word they learned when planning their trip to America.

Given it's a road trip, we know there will be plenty of obstacles in their way to find Veit's father in San Francisco.  For starters, they only have enough cash to get to New York which means once they land, they have to find money and a means to get to the other side of the country. This means doing what they can to make money, from showing their films, to stripping and eventually agreeing to drive a car to California.

The move is often categorized as a 'gay film', but neither of the lead characters are gay.  I think given it's star is Schweighöfer, who some know from his many nude scenes, (some you can see on FH HERE:) promoting the film as 'gay themed' may have made some odd sense at the time.  There is a sweet dynamic between the two male leads, and although just friends, it's easy to imagine the two getting together sexually, even if just for a night.

Along the way, they're arrested twice, once when they arrive in the US, and once for 'public nakedness' while on the road.  After cleaning up in a lake, the two get back int the car wearing almost nothing, as their clothes hang out of the car to drive.  When they're pulled over by the police, Tom (Schweighöfer) get's out with only an American Flag to cover the goods.  Never has there been a hotter lowering of the flag...  Thanks to RESTITUDA1 for helping jog my memory about this scene!