NIRVANA IS HERE TP (MR) (21 Oct Release)

Two German siblings¸ 12-year-old Tâm and 14-year-old Dennis Nguy?n¸ encounter a young Vietnamese woman in trouble in a flea market parking lot. When Tâm's spy movie-obsessed schoolmate¸ Alex¸ discovers an abandoned backpack with a photo of a happy couple with Tâm's address on the back¸ it will lead the two to discover a severed finger. Worried¸ Tâm searches for the desperate woman¸ aided by her reluctant brother¸ and eventually finds Hoa Bin¸ who escaped from her kidnapper — who's still tracking her down. Drawn to Hoa Bin¸ Tâm vows to save her — even if she has to break her stern-but-loving mom's rules¸ dodge the bad guys in wild chases through the Berlin streets¸ and combine the forces of Marina¸ the Nguy?ns’ tough-chick neighbor¸ Jutta¸ an elderly retired actress¸ a rollerblading girl gang¸ and many others to do so. In Ross's empathetic¸ loose-but-controlled lines¸ cartoonishly expressive kids interact against and within the realistically depicted urban environments¸ given texture and grit by screen-tones. Nirvana is Here is a contemporary crime thriller that has adventure¸ diasporic¸ coming-of-age¸ and love story elements¸ set in Berlin's working-class Lichtenberg district against a backdrop of very current social issues.