Staying geographically concise tonight, I'll add one more entry on my list from Germany. "The Burning Snail" was released in 1995. It stars Maximilian Haas as Peter. It appears that Tobias Nath and Michael Huml might also be performers of interest who are in this film. As with the other German films, Kino magazine provides the summary.

The film's action centers on 14-year-old Peter who lives alone with his mother. Peter, who is currently in the difficult phase of self-discovery, has focused all his longings on his mother. Her own unsatisfied longings mean that she is incapable of reacting accordingly to the needs of her child. Instead, she puts up a barrier without even being aware that she's doing it. Peter makes contact with a radical youth gang in his class. They are all children from the upper class. Peter's attention is directed to Axel, the gang leader, who similarly treats him as coldly as Peter's mother does. His mother becomes acquainted with a young man and, for a while, it looks as if this man has appeared in Peter's life at just the right time to help him in his self-discovery. The mother's longings are so great, though, that she takes up all of the man's time for herself and ignores Peter even more. Peter gets increasingly involved in the brutal activities of his gang and lets himself be manoeuvred into a dangerous rival position by the gang leader. Slowly but surely, Peter slips away from reality and heads for a fateful conclusion.

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I hope you enjoyed tonight's small survey of some of the many films Zabladowski thinks he wants to see.  If the response is good, I'll try to do this on a semi-regular basis.

Thanks, Zabladowski!

I certainly hope you'll do this again!  

If that boy with the pistol is Peter, I'm sure anxious to see more of young Maximilian Haas someday. He sure looks nice in a profile shot, even with a serious look on his face.


You're right, josephk. These films do have a life of their own in our imaginations, and if you guys keep posting these great reviews, I'm gonna have to get myself one of those PAL format players, too.

Love,
Sir Jacob

I have an Aiwa, Digital Converter System vcr, which will play NTSC and PAL formats without a problem. It automatically detects the format, and, at my choice will play it as it is, or will convert it to the other format.  I also have the choice of recording off cable to either NTSC or PAL.  Love it!

(Edited by MikeZ at 12:38 pm on Aug. 31, 2002)

I've got this movie on tape...  however, it's been a couple of years since I've watched it.  It's not a fun movie at all but it is very good. Without revealing too much young Peter is subjected to peer pressure which results in some very serious consequences.

Rating 8/10