Eine aussergewöhnliche Affäre (2002) (TV)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Maris Pfeiffer

Writers:

Maris Pfeiffer (writer)
Ben Taylor (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Jochen Wenzel, a young teacher, married with two kids, one day surprisingly falls in love with a young male colleague...

Plot Keywords:

Love | Teacher | Gay | Infidelity | Falling In Love

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Hans Werner Meyer	...	Jochen
Tatjana Blacher	...	Ina Wenzel
Matthias Walter	...	Tom Leuthner
August Schmölzer	...	Wolfgang
Bruno Cathomas	...	Michael Kaiser

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Company:

teamWorx Produktion für Kino und Fernsehen GmbH

Quotes:

[Jochen and Tom meet for the first time and shake hands]
Jochen: You don't really look like a teacher.
Tom: Well, you too.
[pause]
Tom: That was supposed to be a compliment.
Jochen: I mean, you're so young.
Tom: I can't do anything about it.

Great TV Take on Love and Secrecy and everything that comes with it when the two persons involved are men

I saw this movie three years ago when it came out on German TV and saw it again just a few days ago when it got re-aired and the feeling was just the same. I was blown away by Hans-Werner Meyer's honest and pitch perfect performance. The movie as a whole is an excellent production, rare for German TV movies these days, but you can see it everywhere while watching the movie. The script is quite believable and the actors, everyone of them, is great. These are indeed outstanding performances by Hans Werner-Meyer as Jochen, Tatjana Blacher as his wife and Matthias Walter as Tom Leuthner.

The story is simple it seems, the path for every of the persons involved is not. Jochen Wenzel is a thirty-something teacher in a small bavarian town, happily married with his wife Ina who wants to become headmistress at the local school, and two children. Jochen's life gets turned upside down when Tom Leuthner, a young gay teacher, becomes the new biology teacher at his and Ina's school. Tom is attractive, young and open about his sexuality and Jochen finds himself first confused by and later attracted to Tom. On a school trip both men start an affair. Ina is unaware of her husband's past (in which Jochen had had homosexual experiences) but notices the changes in Jochen's behavior.

Soon Jochen finds himself torn between his family life and his love for Tom and when one of Jochen's pupils witnesses the two men kissing each other, Jochen is forced to decide between a life with Ina and their kids or acknowledge his love for Tom...