It was the end of October 2000, and nope, the world hadn't ended yet, otherwise we wouldn't be here today, scrubbing and trying to stop scrubbing it up again and again.

In such circumstances, in a building of doubtful antiquity, the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany operated. And on that very day an examination was carried out, which was prepared for two weeks, and it was already the end. The camera, design, script and directing students were working hard with the collaboration of a small group of actors, some of them emerging, perhaps as novice, talented and dreamy as themselves.

Stundenhotel was the title of the film, and it was the account of the various possible events that could occur in a hotel room for dates, in total 10 satirical episodes.

Ricardo Dudamel, was a cameraman, and this was also his exam. He was walking in a hurry loaded with his things to the blessed room that was now the scene of one of his many exams, but one of the last, since it was his penultimate semester at this academy. Ricardo was a 25-year-old who was too proactive. From Barcelona he went to Ireland to continue studying and there he began his first jobs. Parallel to his studies, he worked on short films, independent tapes, and some television films. And now here he was, in Cologne, on another scholarship. He loved cinema and theater. He walked from here to there and from here to there. He had a lot of friends and acquaintances, and he spoke three languages.

At that moment, precisely, one of his best friends was after him, accompanying him. The 19-year-old girl was dodging nails on the polished pine wood floor. Her name was Amanda Garcia, and she was terribly special ...

Amanda and Ricardo became friends in Barcelona, ​​he more as a cameraman and she more as a photographer. No, actually, Ricardo was fully into the camera, this was his profession, his vocation and his life; Amanda, on the other hand, considered photography as a kind of hobby where her talent focused, although ... she also had a plan. The main goal in Amanda's life, with a year after graduating from high school, was to study Environmental Engineering.

- Isn't it bad that she's here? - Amanda asked after Ricardo.

- Neh, no one will tell you anything. - Ricardo could perceive the dissatisfaction of his friend behind his back, so he added: "Do you want to see how we do things here, yes or no?"

- Yes ... I must remind you that I ...

- Then calm down!

- Anyway, I'll be leaving soon.

Ricardo glanced at her and saw her dodging imaginary nails on the floor. She made a worried face and added:

- Looks like you have hives. Andy, calm down will you ...

They had already reached the room. They were still preparing it, scattering bottles of drinks, cigarettes ... and giving it a touch of elemental disorder.

- Consider it as if you were just accompanying me to my exam. - Ricardo finally said- Obviously, when the moment of action has come, you should leave me ... If you see it, that's exactly what you're doing.

Amanda began to look around her and was overcome by exquisite curiosity ... and she said:

- Well, then I'll just look and not touch anything ... Oh, wow, look, a motel closet!

- This is not a motel, it is a Stundenhotel, an hourly hotel.

Amanda looked at him reproachfully and emphasized:

- It's a motel.

- What do you do...

Amanda ducked into the closet, lowering her head with stealthy movements.

- I wonder if I can fit in this closet ...

- Hahaha, it's just what the boy tried ...

- Who.

- The protagonist...

Amanda comes out of the small white closet and, surprised, questions Ricardo:

- How can you think of that. Do you really try?

- You are right. What does it have, if you could enter ...

- I do, because I'm a bit flat, and I couldn't even close the door; but that ñato must be taller ... How can he ever fit in here.

Ricardo was left, again, without being certain that he had fully grasped what Amanda had just told him.

- What did you say? Ñato ... Cha ... What.

- Ñato ... Pibe, guy, boy, dude ...

Ricardo stopped short for a couple of seconds to finally say:

- Like sometimes, you speak strangely. And I wonder where you get those words from. - and shrugged.

- My mother raised me talking like that, what can I do. That's how I am.
And then, in the end, where is it hidden?

- Ah, let's see, where would you hide.

- Hmmm, well under the bed ... Was I right?

- That would have been a good idea; however our boy is dim and chose to hide in the bathtub.

Amanda turns to look at him incredulously.
- .... Seriously?

-Yes.

- But what a foolish guy!
If the lady is the one who does the cleaning ... Obviously the first thing she will do is go to the bathroom!

- That's the story ...

- Nah, what a sonsera.

"What the hell does sonsera mean" Ricardo thought to himself. Amanda continued:

- Whatever they do to him afterwards, he deserves it. How do they punish him?

- In an embarrassing way.

- Well deserved, silly.
-------------------------------------------------

After finishing the last details, a young woman asked a busy Ricardo for help to fix the curtain on the large window in the room.

"I'll do it," Amanda interjected. Ricardo didn't pay much attention to it. Amanda climbed onto a ledge and attached some curtain rings.
Finally, Ricardo noticed her.

- Okay, let me help you down, Super Girl

He offered her his hand and his shoulder, but at the last moment Amanda straightened up again.

- Wait a minute, it's not right. If this is a motel room, why would the curtains have to be so perfectly placed?

He then removed a couple of rings from the curtain, making it look rough.

- Yes now. - Amanda confirmed satisfied. - Yeah, now it looks real.

Then, ready to get off the ledge, she placed her hand on ...

That wasn't Ricardo.

How was it possible. A few seconds ago, Ricardo, the Ricardo that Amanda knew, was there offering her his shoulder, and now, in his place, there was another boy, a younger one, with bright, intense brown eyes and an expression of innocence on his face.

"Ricky?" Amanda asked incredulously. Seriously, at some point he believed that Ricardo had transformed into that other man in front of him, whom he was staring in the eye. The look of disbelief on her face seemed to amuse the boy, and he, without taking his eyes off her, corrected the misunderstanding by telling him her name, revealing a soft and pleasant voice:

- Daniel.

And he smiled with closed lips without taking his eyes off her. His brown eyes had a certain sparkle ...

- Oh, I'm coming.

Ricardo appeared from the other end, hurried but carefree approached Amanda

"Entschuldigung (excuse me)," Ricardo said to Daniel, and the latter without more to do or say went to the other end walking calmly.

Amanda, looking relieved, leaned on Ricardo's shoulder and stepped off the ledge.

"And how are you, what do you think?" He asked Ricardo regarding his work with the curtain.

- It looks the same as before.

- It looks real.

- ... Can be.

- Anyway. It's time to go. I think they will already begin.

- Yes, the actors have arrived. Everything is ready.

- Good. I'll go do some things.

"Are you going to see Andy?" Ricardo asked him.

- Yes, but ah ... I would like to talk to you first ... - Amanda remembered that she had something heavy pending - will be that when you finish we can talk for a while ...

- Clear. See you at twelve o'clock at the usual Café?

"Yes," Amanda answered firmly. "See you there."

And finally Amanda left.
------------------------------------------

Ricardo did his job. In the end, it was an acceptable episode. Within a week, the work would be revealed to everyone, although without exaggeration, only a few Germans could properly see it.

When everyone was getting ready to leave, Ricardo noticed Daniel. She had seen him before, alongside Camilla, the co-star, in a movie that struck her as strange but intense. To tell the truth, the character that Daniel played in that movie was what seemed the most redeemable to him: a tormented boy with attitude problems who ended up shaving his head and taking control of the chaos.

Now, Ricardo had taken it upon himself to focus on Daniel in particular. And as he focused his fearful eyes on the inevitable moment when his mother's character discovered him behind the bathtub curtains, he had a revelation ...
He'd had it before with some of his actor friends, and it was a good omen.

That boy would be great.

Ricardo decided to approach Daniel and express that brief revelation in his acceptable German:

- Hello, you acted well.

Daniel raised his gaze to that man who was speaking to him in a friendly manner. He recognized it, and remembered the strange girl who had put her hand on his shoulder.

- Hello, thank you.- Daniel answered briefly but pleasantly. Then he couldn't help but mention it.- You were with that girl ...

- Oh yeah, Andy. Is my best friend.

- I've never seen her around here ...

Ricardo understood.

- No. She only accompanied me for a moment. She is a photographer, she is curious.
I think you act fine. I usually have these kinds of omens when I see an actor and I know he will be a talented star in the future.

- For real? I hope that future is very soon.

They both laughed. Ricardo held out his hand and introduced himself:

- Ricardo, but they call me Ricky.

Daniel responded to the gesture with a handshake.

- Daniel, and they call me ... Daniel.

- Haha, I'll call you Danny.

Daniel was impressed with such audacity.

Ricardo continued.

- It is very likely that it will be very soon. For example, when I met my best friend almost a year ago when he was acting in a play, I knew he had a great future in store for him. He is a wonderful actor, multifaceted and very committed to his profession. Now he is a theater star in Ireland and he will finally shoot his first film here in Germany, and he will be the protagonist of it.

"Well, let's see when the moment comes for me." Daniel said without much encouragement, but out of kindness to the talk he added: "What's your friend's name?"

- You'll know him, when the movie comes out and then he becomes famous. His name is Andy Gregson.

Daniel felt somewhat confused.

- Andy ... as your friend ...?

Ricardo started laughing, he loved that part of the story.

- Yes. I call them both Andy. Her name is Amanda, and he is Andrew. Together they are Andy for Andy, or Andy squared. What's more, you could say that they are my creation. They are both dating, and I am responsible for that story. I played Celestino.
I advised Andrew, and Amanda, got them to know each other, and set the stage for both of them to fall in love ... They are the perfect couple. I hope they never end ...

Daniel listened to him strangely. This Ricardo was something weird. And besides, apparently, he had a mania with diminutives in names.
He felt the dire need to leave immediately.

- Wow. Well now I have to go. It was nice meeting you.

- The pleasure was mine, Danny. I hope we see each other again very soon.

Daniel felt strange hearing him pronounce "Danny", he finally just smiled and left with his hand up.
----------------------------------------------

"Well, are you ready to hear my decision?" Amanda asked Ricardo, they finally met and she had reached the key point of the conversation.

- Yes. Say it.

- I'm going to break up with Andy.

- What???

Ricardo broke down.

- I know it's somewhat shocking ...

-...but why...

- I have felt for a long time, not better, I do not feel any special connection. I don't feel fireworks, and I don't really know if I ever felt them ...

- What are you talking about...

- Also, the day before yesterday I definitely confirmed this decision because ... He did something ... Buajh ... He did something that I just can't ignore ... It's something terrible.

Then Amanda remembered the event that defined the breakup.
She and Andy were together, he was practicing on his guitar for his movie and she was reading a book on electrolysis. At some point, Amanda became thirsty, and she remembered that she had a glass of orange juice on the table right next to Andy, so she asked Andy to pass it to her.
Andy Gregson, without even looking at her, or paying due attention to said glass, just said "Sure" and immediately held the glass with orange juice dipping his fingers into it ... and thus passed it to Amanda. "Here you go," he said without looking at her or the glass of juice in which he had his fingers.

Amanda was briefly shocked. I couldn't process it.
Despite the long silence and lack of reaction from Amanda, Andy Gregson didn't look at her either, he kept the glass in his fingers.

Amanda finally took the glass and questioned him: "Are you aware of what you just did?"
Andy finally looked at her and apparently the act she had committed didn't seem like anything to write home about. Amanda was even more dumbfounded by such justification, so she quickly grabbed Andy's guitar by the strings in a non-delicate way. This alarmed Andy, "What are you doing ?!", he reproached her.
"That's exactly what I questioned when you dipped your fingers in my juice!"

"But what have you got," he complained.

"You do not know the existence of microorganisms, especially pathogens? Or even what hygiene means, or at least good customs ...?"

"It's just a juice. And that doesn't explain why you picked up my guitar like that."

"You do not understand?"

"No ... It's not the same, that is a simple juice. Does it bother you that I put my fingers in it? Well, there is no mess. Here, have another glass of juice, and there is much more in the bottle .. On the other hand, my guitar is a very delicate matter. My guitar is not like a glass of juice that you drink and pour yourself another one over and over again ... I only have one guitar. Only one. And it is my instrument of I work at these crucial moments in my life ...
Understand: If you spoil my guitar I won't have to practice with, if I don't practice I won't do my role well in my first major movie, if I don't do a good role in my first major movie I won't have a successful career, if I don't have a successful career I'll die starvation or I'll end up drunk in some alley in Ireland, and if it ended that way ... I won't be able to marry you, and then we can never be happy ...
Now you do understand how important and extremely crucial that-is- THIS ...? "

Amanda understood it but didn't accept it

Ricardo, after listening to Amanda's arguments, knew that he could no longer do anything. It was the end.

- Well, I think it hurts me more than it can hurt him.- Ricardo finally said. Goodbye Andy squared.
--------------------------------------------------

- Daniel, what did you eat.

Marisa, Daniel's mother, faced her son, who was hurrying down the hall of the house where he still lived with his parents ... still.
She spoke to him in Spanish because she was Spanish, she had always done so, and Daniel responded in the same language and with the same naturalness.

- What was in the kitchen.

- Did you serve yourself everything I prepared? I made chickpeas with collard greens.

- Yes, I only tried the cream of ...
That green thing.

- Why are you all in a hurry and at the last minute? Where will you get that way? You have to be more disciplined, more orderly ...

- I was late.

- There are no excuses when it comes to your life ... If you don't eat properly you will get sick over time.

- It is not something of always. Just for today. And I did eat ... I ate that cream.

- At what time you come back.

- When ever. At six.

- I think you're leaving very late.

- Mother, I leave when I finish. Ask dad, he knows, he sees me ... These days he's been coming for that movie.

Daniel, carrying the backpack on his back, crossed the dining room where his brother, Oliver, was, the latter had come as a brief visit since he was already married and had his own house very close to there. Seeing Daniel in such a hurry, Oliver offered to drive him:

- Are you on the way out? I will take you. You may not even find a transport at this time.

- Yes ?. Thanks thanks...

- Daniel.

His mother caught his eye, and Daniel turned to attend to her.

- What happens.

- Open the mouth.

- What...

- Opens.

Daniel obeyed and opened his mouth with a sound:

- Aaaahhhh

His mother scrutinized his oral cavity with narrowed eyes.

- I think you have tartar.

- What?

- You have to brush your teeth better !. - His mother reproached him, while Oliver ran his hand over his temple- How do you plan to work like this? Actors don't walk with sloppy teeth. You have to take more care of yourself!

- But I wash well!

- How many minutes. I hear you're only in the bathroom for less than three minutes ... The dentist told you five minutes!

Daniel only showed his gritted teeth and impatient eyes bulging out of their sockets.

- Do not do that!. You look like a monster! Shit fly, go to your brother. Come back early!

Daniel gave his mother a kiss on the cheek and she returned it with a hug. Marisa patted her youngest son, whom she loved dearly, on the back, and entrusted him to finish:

- And you bring bread.
------------------------------------------------

Daniel was working on the German dubbing of another Bruce Lee movie. It wasn't something he was passionate about, but it was work ... and he needed it, while he will find another movie to act in.
When he was 8 years old he won a reading contest, and his uncle, Hein Brühl, who worked alongside his father at WDR, encouraged him to be on a radio show to tell stories "You talk a lot, and you can read well. No You think you can get some benefit out of it "he had said. Thus he began to earn his first savings. Later, with the same recommendation from his uncle, he dubbed German films. So, after getting involved in school theater, Daniel wanted to be an actor.
He had started acting in front of the camera at the age of 15, this time with the support of his father who was a television and documentary director, earned his first money of his own and was able to buy a mountain bike. From that moment he knew that he wanted to be an actor, and that he was going to do what was necessary to achieve it.
By the end of school, he had informed his father that he would pursue acting. His father, Hanno Brühl, had allowed Daniel to act in a few roles during his teens: in a couple of series and a novel; because he considered it a hobby, an experimentation, and perhaps a brief whim of his pampered younger son; but from there to wanting to take that role as a professional way of life ... It was critical. Hanno, with his work experience, was fully aware of the ups and downs of the film industry, and knew that acting was not a dream job at all. He was blunt at the beginning with Daniel, he did not allow it.
"The actors are conceited and idiots. Besides, they are always unemployed. I can't imagine a future like that for you, son," he told him.

But finally, Daniel, managed to convince him. Hanno, who was open-minded, knew how to cope with his son. He decided that if Daniel really wanted to be a professional actor, he should support and guide him in the best possible way and with all the care that was required. He had good contacts with directors, producers and actors. He got Daniel a personal acting instructor, because he said acting academies would take up his time and that they were actually an unnecessary luxury. He used his connections to get Daniel auditions for films that he believed were suitable for him both at his skill level and work level. In addition, he was always supervising him and giving him advice and instructions based on all his experience.
Hanno even shot a youth television movie starring Daniel in 1999, where I not only guide him as a father, but as a creative mentor.

And if things didn't work out, Hanno even had a plan B: Daniel would have to dedicate himself to journalism.

An infallible project.

Now Daniel was in his brother's car on his way to work in a recording studio, he was working on the dubbing of ... oh yeah, another Bruce Lee movie.
As Oliver was driving, Daniel ended up confessing that he had auditioned for a strange movie. Oliver, when he finished listening, questioned him:

- Did you audition for a snorting punk movie?

- I thought it was a movie about The Smiths. When I read a part of the script I realized that it was something else ...

- I mean, are you auditioning to audition? Are you not well informed about the movie you plan to get into?

- I don't know what happened ... You won't tell Dad.

- That awful.

Daniel made a resigned face. Oliver took one look at it and deduced it in an instant by asking:

- Does he even know you're about to audition in that movie?

Daniel put his hands to his face and made sounds of condemnation. Oliver knew that this meant the answer was negative, so he scolding exclaimed:

- No?!

Daniel threw his head back and closed his eyes, shaking his jaw.
Oliver questioned it:

- What's happening to you. Are you in love or something?

- I'm always in love.

- Well now if he's taking you to the moon ... Look how misplaced you are ... You don't say anything to Dad about this, and by the way you're not even doing it right. He has to find out sooner or later, and he won't like you doing stupid things without even saying something to him. He cares about you more than anything else, don't be inconsiderate.
It's okay that you want to be independent, but you can't ignore dad, at least not now that you're getting started on being an actor. He is supporting you, and precisely so that you do not go committing stumbles or bullshit as you are doing now.

- Yes, you're right...

- Say it tonight. Because tomorrow is your famous audition and you have to give explanations to get out ... You have no choice, come on, you will tell him as soon as possible. And I hope it bothers you because you're half an idiot.

When they reached their destination, Daniel got out of his brother's car and headed to the recording studio. He was late.

He had a lot on his mind, but at the end of the day he knew he had to face it.
Suddenly, without calling him, an image came to mind. A young woman with very black hair with an impossible hairstyle, with big, dark, cunning, tender but lively eyes; with quite wide trousers, and a black high-necked sweater; looking at him in disbelief ...

"Amanda, Andy ... Amanda ..." he thought. " What a weird girl", he told herself.