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Some people are born mean, some achieve meanness, and others have meanness thrust upon them. It is difficult to discern which of these three options applies to Micha, who is not yet an adolescent. His response to the unremitting sternness and harshness of his father, and the consistent lack of support he receives from his family, is to join together with other bullies at school and terrorize, for instance, the irritatingly vulnerable grandmother of one of the youths. He also delights in setting his brother up for punishment. About the only time something resembling tenderness enters his life is when he escapes into his fantasies. This hard-hitting drama won its director an award at the 1992 Munich Film Festival.