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| SYNOPSIS |  |
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When we meet Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), a small time courier for big time gangster, he is working a standard pick-up/drop-off, and everything is going just fine. When the job is done, all he has to do is wait for his girlfriend, the orange-haired punk girl Lola (Franka Potente), to pick him up. But today is unlike any other day. Due to an incident while she was buying a pack of cigarettes, Lola is late, and Lola is never late. One stroke of bad luck leads to another, and by the time Manni calls Lola, he is at a pay phone with a big, big, big problem. His unforgiving boss will meet him in twenty minutes to pick up 100,000 marks; money that Manni, suddenly, does not have.
Lola rushes out of her apartment and down the street, attempting to get to Manni and, somehow, pick up 100,000 marks on the way. She tears through the city, in a whirl of bums, nuns, babies and guns. Down sidewalks, into offices, through traffic and back again. As her feet slap the pavement and the seconds tick down, the tiniest choices become life altering (or ending) decisions, and the fine line between fate and fortune begins to blur.
Synopsis 2
Lola (Franka Potente) receives a frantic call from her boyfriend, Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) who's at a pay phone. Seems that Manni -- a runner for a drug dealer -- has accidentally lost the boss' bread by forgetting it on a commuter train car after getting nervous at the sight of a couple of policemen on board. In his haste to exit the train at the stop and distracted by a bum who falls down in front of him, Manni leaves the cash on the seat. By the time he remembers, it's too late.
Lola feels responsible in part, because Manni is laying the blame on her for neglecting to pick him up with the cash at a predetermined place and time. He should have never been on that train to begin with.
It all boils down to this: The pusher is going to kill Manni and won't believe his story of losing the stash. Desperate to save his own hide, Manni decides that he's going to rob a grocery store at gunpoint to hopefully try and come up with the loot.
Lola begs him not to do it. Manni gives her 20 minutes to come up with an alternative idea. At the top of the hour, he's going to move forth with his plan to rob the supermarket in a desperate attempt to save his own life.
This sets Lola into motion. Her moped stolen only that morning (which is why she failed to pick up Manni), Lola has no way to reach Manni in time any faster than on foot. So she runs. And runs some more. And we're with her every fast, deliberate (if somewhat klunky) step of the way.
I'll bet I lost fifteen pounds just watching that girl go. And we're only seeing 1/5th of the amount of running time that Potente actually did for the film. In Doc Marten boots no less. Don't try this at home.
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