Drifting

Robbie grows up with his mother having abandoned him, moving to Germany where she runs a restaurant, and with little contact with his father. This background sets up a persistent sense of displacement as a foreigner in his own country and as the son of a Holocaust survivor. The landscape of his early life haunts his decisions and self-image throughout the story.

By day he works in his grandmother's grocery store, observing her German-influenced world and the quiet prejudices that color his life. He feels caged, living like a tiger in a cage while concealing a truth about his sexuality. The store is the routine that anchors him as he navigates family expectations.

Robbie is obsessed with making the first cheerful film to win an Oscar, a dream that fuels his approach to life. At the same time, he pursues men as part of his identity, using sex as a way to feel alive in a culture that shames him. These two obsessions drive both his creativity and his longing for connection.

At night, Robbie walks through Independence Park looking for sexual encounters, a ritual that reveals his loneliness and craving for affirmation. The chase for fleeting connections becomes a pattern that clashes with his family’s expectations. The park becomes a stage for his secret life away from his grandmother's gaze.

Robbie engages in sexual relations in club bathrooms, a taboo outlet for his desires. The nights escalate as he brings two Palestinian terrorists to his home, sharing a sexual encounter with them. The act confronts him with the risks of living openly and the complexity of his desires.

Grandmother consumes German women's magazines and plays Rummy to Strauss, shaping a narrow worldview. She routinely labels Arabs terrorists and she is ashamed of Robbie, preferring to ignore the men he brings home. Her stance embodies the cultural pressures that push Robbie toward concealment.

When upset, Grandmother yells that Robbie should find a nice woman, marry, and start a family. Her demand underscores the social duty that Robbie is expected to fulfill, increasing the tension between his sexuality and his family’s expectations. The idea of a conventional life becomes a recurring point of conflict.

Robbie falls in love with a man named Han, who ultimately gives in to social pressure and marries a woman. His ex-girlfriend, meanwhile, would like to rekindle their relationship. These relationships expose the power of societal expectations on personal choices.

Robbie's father, a Holocaust survivor with a heavy accent, attempts to explain that the norm is a family with a wife and children and that gay men grow old alone. The father's perspective adds a weighty, traditional voice to Robbie's ongoing conflict. The dialogue marks a clash between generations and worldviews.

Robbie runs into a high school friend and vents all his anger about the bullying he endured, accusing him of fear and complicity. The friend admits he avoided their friendship because he feared being laughed at by others. The scene crystallizes the lasting pain of prejudice.

Robbie tries to secure investors for his Oscar dream but fails to find backing. The rejection amplifies his sense of isolation and the gulf between his ambitions and reality. The failure becomes a turning point: his identity becomes the resolution, not his film success.

With the dream unfulfilled, Robbie comes to terms with his sexuality and the life he has chosen. The film closes on a note of self-acceptance, even as he remains without investors or mainstream recognition. The final moment focuses on personal truth rather than outward success.