The latest in a series of German movies on the theme of neuro-divergency was a box office hit in its native land, and it’s easy to see why. Clearly a mainstream effort, Weekend Rebels is based on a popular blog-turned-bestseller that approaches autism with disarming frankness leavened by a comic touch that’s obviously designed to acclimatize viewers to the behavior of people on the spectrum. In that regard, the filmmakers deserve props, but the production itself exudes a kind of harmless predictability, as if the story’s development had been structured as a power point presentation. In fact, in one scene a character says to another that his explanation of how he deals with his son’s autism sounds like “a TED talk.”

The character in question is Mirco (Florian David Fitz), the father of ten-year-old Jason (Cecilio Andresen), who has Asperger’s, a condition that mostly manifests in extreme OCD tantrums. To the casual outsider, Jason’s behavior is that of a very spoiled child, and thus Mirco and his wife, Fatime (Aylin Tezel), are subjected to withering looks whenever Jason acts out in public. Explaining that Jason is autistic does little to encourage tolerance, which is probably an anti-PC way of looking at the issue anyway, so both parents learn to cope with these situations the best they can, but Fatime has to address the problem on an almost constant basis since Mirco’s job as a national sales manager for a fast food chain keeps him on the road almost constantly. Eventually, Fatime has a kind of breakdown and Mirco is forced to confront his employer with an ultimatum, which she miraculously gives in to, offering Mirco not only a management position that allows him to go home at 5 every day, but also a pay raise. With his weekends now completely free, he endeavors to spend more time with Jason and quickly realizes what his wife had to deal with, including battling with the public education system to prevent Jason from being transferred to a school for students with “special needs.” The thing about Jason is that he understands his condition, as well as the cultural atmosphere surrounding it (“I’m not Rainman,” he screams at one point), and in his inherent stubbornness refuses to surrender to the social slot in which the establishment, regardless of how well-meaning its intentions, tries to place him. Since the same OCD tendencies that make his parents’ lives difficult also focus his energies on certain interests, mainly astrophysics, once his attentions are engaged he is willing to negotiate his behavior in order to pursue those interests. When a classmate asks what his favorite football team is, he is stumped, and Mirco uses this dilemma as a basis for bonding. They will attend games for all 56 German football clubs so that Jason can decide which one will be his favorite.

As a promotional medium for German professional football, the movie works extremely well, though those of us who aren’t necessarily into the niceties of the sport may also find the scenes of boisterous fans (which freak out Jason at first) and complicated explanations of regional sports peculiarities less than engaging. But the premise lends itself to the high drama that often marks interactions with people on the spectrum, since the visceral experience of attending live soccer games intensifies the problems that many people with Asperger’s have in public situations. However, in the movie these effective dramatic moments are often spoiled by the peppy pop song soundtrack and a style of montage-heavy editing that reduces everything to a bland porridge of sameness. As Jason himself states at one time while describing how the universe was formed, “chaos is now accepted by scientists as part of nature,” and it might have been more to the movie’s benefit had the filmmakers themselves adopted that credo.

In German and English. Opens Nov. 15 in Tokyo at Shinjuku Piccadilly (050-6861-3011), Kadokawa Cinema Yurakucho (03-6268-0015).

Weekend Rebels home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2023 Wiedemann & Berg Film GMBH/Sevenpictures Film GMBH