CALIFORNIA CITY

CALIFORNIA CITY

Director: Bastian Günther
Feature film | D | 2014
84 min | Dolby 5.1

48th Hof International Film Festival
2014

A nameless character travels through the California Mojave Desert in the post-apocalyptic environment of the real estate crisis. His job is to exterminate pests from the pools of foreclosed homes. On the road through this isolated region, everything, from dragonflies to tarmac, reminds him of his ex-girlfriend Chelsea. In affairs of love and metaphysics, he turns to local marauders, priests, and telephone clairvoyants, who all confirm that he “will find love again.”

As his trip progresses through the deserted area, it becomes increasingly difficult to find water or mosquitos. To make matters worse, he loses contact with the headquarters of his employer. Progressively, the passing landscape seems more and more familiar to him: everything is isolated, empty, and sad. Lovelorn, he stops looking for parasites and starts to reflect on alternative ways of living. Is the world as we know it simply a Plan B?