As We Were Dreaming (2015) - Andreas Dresen

Andreas Dresen's As We Were Dreaming is a harrowing coming of age story which takes place in Eastern Germany, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Focusing on the lives of a group of rambunctious youth that includes Rico, Daniel, Paul, and Mark, As Were Were Dreaming follows these four young men as they "live in the moment", stealing cars, taking drugs, and opening a disco in a secluded old warehouse, intent on creating a music-fueled scene where youths can come to drink and dance.  Facing resistance from a group of neo-Nazi skinheads who wish to control the disco, Rico, Daniel, Paul, and Mark navigate the somewhat tumultuous streets of post-Berlin Wall Germany, directionless, hoping to snag their piece of the pie.  Andreas Dresen's As We Were Sleeping is a film which uses the backdrop of post-Berlin War Germany to explore the lens of youthful promise and potential disappointment, chronicling the early exuberance of youth, and how quickly the "live in the moment" mentality evaporates when adulthood hits and responsibility and direction are paramount.  The narrative of As We Were Dreaming is somewhat meandering and a bit clunky, jumping back-and-forth between these characters' young childhood in grade school and their present borderline delinquency, establishing the relationships which exist among these characters, in particular that of Dani & Rico.  If there is a main protagonist in this ensemble cast it's Dani, the most sensitive and put-together member of this group.  Dani is a character who has stood by his friends through thick and thin, with the film subtlety suggesting that some of his friends, such as Rico, have much more emotional trauma due to a less-than ideal youth.  The flashback sequences are a bit clunky, but they do serve an important purpose to the narrative, establishing Dani's deep-seeded allegiances to his friends which explain his present, inability to move past the directionless, delinquency of his life.  Dani is a character who is introduced as more sensitive, more put-together than his other friends, the character in the group who sees one of the local girls as more than just a sex object, a character who resists the idea of physical conflict and begins to grow tired of his friends aimlessness in life.  His early dreams of being a reporter have completely evaporated due at least in part to his bonds of friendship, with the film suggesting that he is essentially being held back of his true potential.  The overall aesthetic of Andreas Dresen's As We Were Sleeping paints a rather dire portrait of Germany in this time period, one where a harsh, gray-infused color palette soaks up every composition, exhibiting the dire stakes of these characters environment, where drugs, fed-up parents, and teenagers alike seem to show very little faith in future prospects.  At its core, As We Were Dreaming is a story about individuality, with Dani being a character who has to free himself from the self-destructive collective of his friends.  He is a character who must reclaim his own sense of purpose, his own drive to be something, no longer able to drift in life after seeing the serious toll it had on most of his friends and even the girl of his dreams.  In the end, As We Were Dreaming is a film that struggles a tad with pacing due to a narrative that doesn't always feel seamless at times, but for what Andreas Dresen's As Were Were Sleeping lacks in narrative efficiency it makes up for in raw energy, delivering a captivating portrait of youth during this unique time period in German history.

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