Kings Hit

Vienna at night. In the dark rooms of a club, techno pounds through the speakers, beams of light cut through smoke and blurred bodies. Richard (32) and Ekon (24) sit in a corner with beers, watching the crowd, speaking Yoruba, staying close to each other. They seem like outsiders in this city, yet determined to let themselves drift for one night. There they encounter Florian (30) and Manon (33) – well-off Austrian cousins who look completely out of place in the grimy techno club: shirt, dress trousers, skirt, patent leather shoes. Florian is completely wasted and, in his intoxicated state, mistakes the two Nigerians for drug dealers. It is an uncomfortable moment, shaped by prejudice, that puts both sides on edge. Later, when Richard and Ekon are turned away at the door of another club for wearing the wrong clothes, their paths cross again. Fueled by cocaine, Florian gets into a loud argument with the bouncer and deliberately provokes him. The situation threatens to escalate, leaving the unlikely group no choice but to flee together into the darkness. Florian, completely wired, does not want the night to end. Driven by his high, he persuades the two men to join him and Manon. As they wander through the city together, the façades begin to crumble: despite the deep social divides, the four open up to one another, and an unexpected intimacy flickers between their very different worlds. Something more than friendship begins to develop between Richard and Manon. Eventually, Florian promises them a very special refuge for the rest of the night. The place turns out to be the run-down drug apartment of the hardened Maria – a claustrophobic dump where their two realities collide head-on. Yet in this detached, almost surreal atmosphere, a brief moment of unvarnished connection emerges. Social boundaries blur, and together they dance to music from Richard and Ekon’s homeland. But this harmonious community is brutally shattered by the social reality that surrounds them. When Florian carelessly mixes a fatal combination of drugs and Ekon subsequently collapses in a life-threatening state, the supposed solidarity gives way to sheer panic. Desperate to save themselves, Florian and Manon flee. Richard is left completely alone with his unconscious friend.