Free Radicals

Synopsis: After being the lone survivor of a gruesome plane crash, Manu (played by Kathrin Resetaritis) returns to a small Austrian town and successfully rebuilds her life. Five years after the near-fatal accident, Manu is surrounded by family members, friends, husband and a lovely young daughter. But for the sake of destiny - or chance - Manu's good luck disappears. After a night of dancing with her best friend Andrea (played by Ursula Strauss), Manu's car fatally collides with a vehicle full of teenagers. More than unleashing a cascade of events which disrupt the lives of her husband - who had been cheating on Manu with her Andrea - daughter, friends, siblings, and the teenagers involved in the accident, Manu's death forces those who lived around her to confront some of their most unexamined life choices. For example, Manu's death pushes Andrea to re-examine the nature of her relationship with Manu's widower (played by Georg Friedrich). And while Manu and Andreas's daughter Yvonne (Deborah Ten Brink) spends most her time with aunt Gerlinde (Marion Mitterhammer), the latter is thrown into chaos by the abrupt loss of her sister quickly descending into a string of abusive relationships. One of these men has a daughter: Patricia (played by Désirée Ourada) is a schoolmate of the teenagers in the car accident. Reluctantly attracted to her schoolmate Kai (Dominik Hartel), the popular young man who was driving the car which killed Manu, rebel teen Patricia steps in to help Kai and his ex-girlfriend Gabi (Nicole Skala), now paralyzed by the accident. Using a Ouija board to connect to unknown forces, Patricia and Kai become first-time lovers. Manu's brother Lukas (Rupert M.Lehofer), a math teacher at the high school attended by Patricia and her friends, also struggles to make sense of this sudden loss. In one of his many lonely lunches, Lukas meets Sandra (Bellinda Akwa-Asare) and clumsily tries to make a move on her. Although not immediately successful, both continue to meet at a local McDonalds, where they nervously share their lives and dine on fast food. In the meantime, Sandra's mother Belinda (Gabriela Schmoll) participates in a local choir and becomes enamored with the choirmaster. Faced with his rebuff and an unhappy existence, Belinda jumps in front of a train but miraculously survives the suicide attempt. As she recovers from the injuries, Belinda is somehow released from her chains of self-doubt and gets a second chance to appreciate her life. Much of the action in FREE RADICALS happens in or around a shopping mall, which is built over the course of the film. The building's apathetic opening party works as a collective, even if anti-climatic, closure for some of the film's main narratives.   Source: Kino International