A wish list becomes the plea of a generation, when a teenage boy asks his mother what she wants for Christmas, and she answers in the most unusual way: “I wish for you to get your youth back” – along with all the ups and downs of growing up. She wishes for everything her son so deeply missed, during two years of the pandemic and hard restrictions in Germany.

In the film an intimate chamber play turns into a roller coaster ride of emotions at the very scene of the pandemic: a family’s home. We relive what could have been from parties, to falling in love and travelling. The mother's monologue, the seamless tracking shot and the reinterpretation of Bon Jovi's "It's my life" take us from youthful highs to the deep pain of first heartbreak. In four minutes, the film tells an entire coming of age drama.

In Germany, the youth were among those who suffered most from the pandemic’s restrictions: with homeschooling, contact restrictions and long periods under lockdown, teenage life was basically cancelled. Their needs were overlooked and the impact on a whole generation’s mental health was underestimated. Their missed experiences, which would shape their lives forever, were never addressed in public.

With our music we want to remind people of what it’s like to be a teenager: From feeling above the clouds to tearful sobbing sadness in seconds. The song “It’s My Life”, originally by Jon Bon Jovi, was seamlessly adapted to the moods of the scenes using various genres. The lyrics were sung by the main actor, who enriches the storyline at the end of the film with an additional change of perspective when he closes with “It’s my life. It’s now or never”. This makes him the voice of millions and millions of young people in Germany and turns the song into an anthem of a whole generation.