This movie depicts a kind-of dystopia where society is separated by individual performance much more than today, but still it somehow doesn't feel so much different than todays reality.

Because it only depicts a few days in total but partly from 3-4 different perspectives, always adding a little background to the story, it has it lengths. It also is a bit pretentious, as another reviewer put it in a nutshell. But I like the reminder - or maybe "warning" - that the story shows us.

The reason, why it doesn't get just 5-6 stars from me but 7-8 stars, are the overall impression (the plot unfolds quite beautifully) as well as the en passant insight about the importance of certain small key actions and key figures and their development. I don't want to spoiler but in the end I really considered two different people as protagonists than throughout most of the film.

Now it would be unfair to just call this a German rip-off of Hunger Games - which in itself was ... borrowing things and themes from other stuff too (Japanese Battle Royale movie to name just one). It would also not be entirely true and accurate. Because this is just one aspect of the movie and this does not tell you to kill other people. It just puts individuals against each other to compete for spots ... society as you know it.

Yes this critisizes structures and how we perceive things, how we are put down (most of us) and so forth. Unfortunately by referencing and balancing so many things it never really manages to achieve all of the goals it sets itself too. Great cast and they all do their best to keep the cliches at a minimum ... but they are really left fighting something they cannot win. I've seen worse, but also way better things.

German cinema as a whole, but German genre cinema in particular has been a mess for decades. Blatantly mediocre at best, utterly cringeworthy at its worst with very, very few glimmers of hope in between. "Jugend ohne Gott" is just another addition to the pile of rubbish that my country has unfortunately accumulated while attempting genre cinema. The movie is terribly pretentious, on the nose and cliché-laden. The social commentary is formulaic, simplistic and superficial, the dialogue is mostly cringeworthy and inauthentic. The movie as a whole lacks depth in every aspect and is only saved from being completely unwatchable by the halfway decent cinematography and the good production values by German standards. Nevertheless: Avoid.