Backwater Blues

Sixteen-year-old Ben is trapped in Wingroden, a backwater which has nothing to offer but an old petrol station, a grocery shop, a flooded gravel pit, a few regulars in the local pub, and Anna, the beautiful hairdresser. He dreams of cutting loose and setting out for Africa someday, and he might well have left long ago if his mother wasn’t already touring the world as a jazz musician, leaving him to take care of his grandfather. While he waits for her, Ben spends his time fixing up his VW Camper and arguing with Maslow, the community’s financier, visionary and ideas-man. Maslow wants to turn Wingroden into a tourist hot spot – complete with amusement park and golf course. His scheme is to spread news of a crashed UFO and make the town a pilgrimage site for UFOlogists. It looks as though Maslow’s plan is coming off nicely when young Lena enters the scene armed with her camera, claiming to be a journalist. But then the UFO story gets diverted to the neigbouring village, the police and press suddenly appear because of a suspected murder, and it turns out that Lena isn’t a journalist after all – by which time Ben has fallen in love with her. Lena flees, leaving Ben a farewell note, and he immediately rushes headlong into a desperate search for her….