Stams

The Stams Ski High School is the winter sports training ground for the Alpine region and one of the most successful ski boarding schools in the world. Those who come here do so not out of a mere love of sport, but to be among the best: to realize their dreams, knowing that in the end only one to two percent of all students will make it to the top in competitive sports. Director Bernhard Braunstein spends a year behind the scenes at Stams, showing the meticulously timed daily routine of hard training, lessons, sparse free time, and boarding school life. With enormous discipline and iron will, the young people repeatedly push themselves to their physical and mental limits. The many injuries and physiotherapy sessions testify to the risky nature of the sport practiced here. Despite the athletic competition, the young athletes form close friendships that turn them into a kind of community of fate. In the moments they share between training, school, and competition, they motivate each other, comfort each other, and laugh about their experiences. What does it take for young people to commit themselves unconditionally to their athletic goals? How do they deal with the constant pressure to perform and succeed and the accompanying power and dependency relationships? And what does that say about our society? STAMS follows the young people closely and with great empathy through the ups and downs of a school year and shows what it means to decide on a sporting career at a young age.