Despite its combative title, Punching the World works through quiet observation. Constanze Klaue adapts Lukas Rietzschel's novel into a portrait of two brothers growing up in an East German community marked by frustration and a lack of prospects.
The first half is particularly affecting. Families drift apart because nobody speaks, while young people look for a place and find emptiness. Klaue lets scenes stand and trusts the performances rather than explaining every feeling.
Levi Eisenblätter and Pierre-Louis Schmitz make Philipp and Tobi credible. Eisenblätter catches the quieter brother's uncertainty especially well. Their development is gradual and apparently casual, which makes it feel lived rather than exaggerated into a conventional teenage drama.
Wide shots emphasize isolation and the smallness of people within their surroundings. Gray tones, little music and long silences support the environment's bleakness.
In the second half, anger becomes more visible, particularly through Tobi. Here, the film loses some precision. His radicalization is suggested without receiving enough development. Far-right extremism remains too much in the background, and I would have welcomed a more direct confrontation.
Even with those weaknesses, this is a remarkable coming-of-age portrait under conditions that offer little hope. Its honesty and attention to people make it linger. It is less a loud punch than a slow rumble, but it still lands.