The title itself sets the sarcastic tone: “Beautiful Souls” can only be found in Tom Schreiber’s tragicomic drama – and that is the kind-hearted, eternally youthful Freddy (August Diehl), who spontaneously sets off for Spain one day. Life there is paradisiacal at first. The sun is shining, the sea is roaring – and he quickly finds a connection with a familial community of dropouts through which he gets a job. But the facade soon crumbles and Freddy even has to fight for the first time in his life.
Instead, he realizes that he has not landed in paradise, but in a hell made of human abysses, which his beautiful soul will hardly survive unscathed. “Dr. Alemán” director Schreiber uses bitter humor to satirize dreams of emigration and package tourism – and scores points with consistently good actors. Also because “Beautiful Souls” looks to the end right at the beginning, it quickly becomes clear what the whole thing is leading to – and it wouldn’t necessarily have taken two hours for it.
Freddy (August Diehl) believes he has hit the jackpot with his new job – but apparently he has completely misjudged club owner Herbert (Josef Hader).
Freddy is a mama’s boy who moves from job to job. In the summer of 1996, however, he suddenly had the opportunity to leave Germany. He ends up in a holiday resort on the Costa Brava, where he gets a job with discotheque owner Herbert (Josef Hader) through Johannes (Thomas Schubert), an old friend who married a local woman and settled there. Herbert’s first job couldn’t be more pleasant: Freddy is supposed to look after his boss’s luxurious property and pay particular attention to Herbert’s parrot. But the bird escapes him, whereupon he has to deal with a different side of his previously jovial boss for the first time.
The always unshaven Austrian, who likes to show off his lack of singing talent, still forgives him – and moves the hapless animal carer into Charly’s (Florian Kroop) employee apartment. He had previously held Freddy’s position himself, but was unceremoniously thrown out. It gradually becomes clear that although Herbert talks about family, he is actually a short-tempered despot. His only thought when the drug addict Charly lies dead in the back yard of the discotheque one day: to make the body disappear! And the attractive beach acquaintance Niko (Johanna Ingelfinger) also reveals dark sides…
Marked by life
The term “Beautiful Soul” originally comes from philosophy and goes back to Hegel and Schiller. Nowadays, however, this is simply understood as a person who is authentic and honest, shows compassion and humanity. Freddy is such a person – and probably those around him weren’t much different before, but life got in the way and that’s how they became what they are. Herbert was also once robbed down to his underpants when he arrived at the place and only by chance did he end up in the disco and with it fame and wealth. A direct hit that has probably gone to his head, but is also in danger of slipping out of his hands because politicians want fewer tourists who will leave more money behind.
And so – apart from the fact that he’s no longer the nightclub top dog he thinks he is – a luxury spa hotel is giving him a hard time. It’s difficult for him to compete with his primitive drinking parties, where Niko ensures that the alcohol level stays consistently high with a beer tank on his back. Herbert also finds it extremely difficult to fully realize his situation because he is still hanging on to the old days. But Niko and the others are also marked by life. Even Freddy’s mother (Sabine Winterfeldt), who unexpectedly follows him, suddenly adopts a tone towards her son in a late scene that one would not have expected.
Niko (Johanna Ingelfinger) fights the disco-goers’ thirst – and low alcohol levels – with her fire extinguisher!
In contrast, the dreamy Freddy, who looks at the world with gentle, innocent eyes, takes the initiative for the first time with his trip to Spain, but then brutally collides with harsh reality. “Beautiful Souls” is basically the perverted version of a coming-of-age film, except that the protagonist’s development process follows such dark paths that in the end you fervently hope that the beautiful soul from the beginning has not completely evaporated by the time the credits roll.
Conclusion: “The grass is always greener somewhere else!” No, not in the ensemble piece “Beautiful Souls” – here, dropout dreams burst with a big bang! Thanks to a consistently wonderful cast – Josef Hader in particular plays the bitter unsympathetic with fervor – and some extremely nasty humor, it’s told in a gripping way, but it still could have been a little shorter.
We saw “Beautiful Souls” as part of the Munich Film Festival 2026, where it celebrated its world premiere.