Ulrich Nielsen 1986

In 1986, Ulrich Nielsen is a restless teenager in the small town of Winden, torn between the girl he's supposed to be with and the one he's secretly seeing. Confident, a little reckless, and quick to anger, he carries himself like someone who thinks he has more control over his life than he actually does.

Bökelmann plays him with a coiled, adolescent swagger that makes his later choices as an adult feel inevitable rather than sudden. The performance finds the arrogance and tenderness underneath each other, so his infidelity reads less like villainy than like a boy badly out of his depth, which is exactly the point.