Nena

Nena (rivetingly rendered by luminous Abbey Hoes), is just another introverted, 16-year-old Goethe-quoting, Goth-styled punker living along the Dutch-German border. She can hardly stand to listen to her friends’ mundane complaints about their parents given that her father is paralyzed from the neck down and wakes up every morning wishing it were his last. After meeting Carlo, her masculine doppelganger—a blue-haired, moped-riding baseball star all too eager to take her virginity—Nena must balance the youthful joy of first love with the weighty responsibility of caring for a disabled and despairing parent. First-time feature director Saskia Diesing's coming-of-age drama is set just prior to the destruction of the Berlin Wall, against an exuberant '80s rock 'n' roll soundtrack. Hoes' award-winning performance switches deftly between wide-eyed innocence and a maturity far beyond her age in this touching, funny, and poignantly humane film.