Bruno (Julius Nitschkoff) and Toni (Lana Cooper) are having fun. Life is a big adventure for the 21 year old and his hip mother with the pink hair who is just 15 years older. Both of them work as cleaners in the sunny island of Ibiza and they don‘t take their job too seriously. They fool around at the pool, chill, chase each other around the outdoor facilities, laugh. The neo-pop song can be heard over this: “you and me, always forever….“ They just do everything together and even sleep in one bed. The symbiotic-harmonious relationship comes to an abrupt end when Toni‘s new partner Hannah (Karin Hanczewski) moves in. Bruno is jealous and he flips out when he is banished from the bed. He loses more and more control over himself and his life, which actually only consisted of Toni. In his feature-length debut, André Szardenings gives the developing conflicts a lot of time. He follows them from them simmering to the explosion and the subsequent calm. A director and cinematographer, Szardening gets very close to the characters, has a microscopic gaze at the fractures and keeps shifting perspectives. The playful interactions, the disorganized vacation home, the alcohol, the restlessness, which seem so free and light in the first scenes might just be because of a chaotic lifestyle. The mothers-son relationship is somehow inverted. Bruno keeps working for the resort boss after hours, while Toni plays hooky with Hannah and doesn‘t pay the rent. BULLDOG meticulously manoeuvers through the relationship and identity crises and focuses on the processes instead of looking for solutions. An atmospheric coming-of-age drama that comes alive through the empathetic protagonist Bruno.

Clarissa Lempp (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy