Arquivo

A documentary that dissects the dream of becoming an actor by following up on the lives of four candidates to the prestigious Academia Ernst Busch, in Berlin, for all of seven years. One hundred youngsters compete for the few vacancies available there each year. Prodromos Antoniadis soon shows his tendency to conflicts with authority and a leaning for intensive action with his obsession over the monologues of the main character in Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle. Constanze Becker struggles to live up to her teacher?s expectations when he sees in her an actress cut out for the role of a powerful woman. Karina Plachetka must first and foremost overcome her shyness. And there is Stephanie Stremler who had to apply for admittance several times over before she was finally admitted. In the four years subsequent to the course, the students must conciliate the dilemas of their own process of maturity and pressures from the curriculum in a school that is known for its tendency towards hard training with techniques with a view to emotional deconstruction and reconstruction as the path to consolidating a genuine commitment to acting. The film follows along with these four lives for over seven years in school, in conflicts with the teaching staff, at home, playing their first roles on a stage, on TV or in cinema, seeking casting agencies and facing the prospects of marriage.