Nico Weg

 REVIEW FILM BY BISMO RACHMAN 

STORY / SYNOPSIS 

Nicos Weg“ is a series for German learners. In the first episode, Nico is listening to German lessons when he runs into Emma and her mother.As Nico leaves the airport, he has some bad luck with his suitcase.

Nico's bag was accidentally loaded into a taxi and driven away! Luckily, someone offers to help.

Nico still doesn't have his luggage, and can't exactly remember his aunt's address. Lisa and Emma offer to give him a ride into the city.

Nico learns how to tell Emma and Lisa his name in German. When they stop to put gas in the car, he sees something he recognizes.

Nico thinks he has maybe found his bag, but no such luck.

Nico, Lisa, and Emma run into Lisa's friend Max, who suggests that they get Lisa's father to help with Nico's situation.

Lisa calls her father, a policeman, to see if he can help find Nico's aunt.

Nico and Emma play a game in the car just before Lisa drops her off at a birthday party.

While Lisa drops Emma off at a birthday party, Nico waits in the car and hears something interesting on the radio.

Nico has the bold idea to call a radio station and tell them about his missing bag.

Nico and Lisa go to the police station, where her father files the little information Nico can give him.

Nico goes to the "Wohngemeinschaft" ("WG") where Lisa lives and meets her housemates, who are getting ready for a party.

When Nico shows Nina and Sebastian the photo of his aunt, Sebastian has the idea to post the photo online and see if anyone recognizes the bicycle shop.

Nico and his friends order pizza and find out that someone has responded to the photograph of his aunt's bicycle shop on social media.

Nico and Lisa eat pizza with Lisa's roommates and talk about the party they are having.

Nawin receives some nice souvenirs at his farewell party, and he and Nico and Lisa discuss various German cities.

Nico meets Selma, who is from Damascus, and learns how to speak about cardinal directions in German.

The group plays a game with food from various countries. Nico learns that Nawin has gotten a job in France, but is reluctant to leave Germany.

As they clean up after the party, the group talks about the nationalities of the various guests and the languages they speak. Sebastian then interrupts with unexpected news.

Lisa is in a rush the next morning, but promises Nico that they will go see his aunt after she is finished with work.

Lisa teaches her students the importance of learning nouns along with their articles so that the gender gets memorized as well.

Nico comes by after Lisa is finished teaching. While Lisa is on the phone with a potential new housemate, Nico takes a look around the room.

Nico is disappointed to find out they have the wrong address for his aunt's bike shop.

Nico can't stay in the shared apartment anymore, but Lisa gives him some ideas where he might possibly stay.

A first potential new housemate comes to look at the room and takes a tour of the group's Wohngemeinschaft (shared apartment).

The next candidate to take over Nawin's room also fails to make a good impression on the group.

The next potential roommate is obviously too fussy for Lisa's apartment.

Lisa's colleague is ill and can't teach her class. Lisa would like to help out, but needs to find someone to babysit for Emma first.

Lisa reviews Emma's schedule with Nico so that he will be prepared for his duties as a babysitter.

Lisa arrives at home to find Nico and Emma eating dinner. In a flashback, Emma reviews her plans for the week.

Emma and Nico might not have done everything exactly as Lisa instructed  them...

Nico makes a few new friends while waiting for Lisa at a cafe.

Nico listens while Tarek takes care of various scheduling matters at the café.

Tariq and his friends arrange to play football, but they are missing a player.

Lisa arrives at the cafe with bad news for Nico: there are no free rooms at the local hostel. Nico, however, seems to always have good luck when he needs help.

Lisa runs off to a job interview, prompting a discussion about careers. It turns out both Max and Tarek have worked and trained in other professions.

Nico asks Max and Tarek about what kind of work they had to do at their previous jobs. Suddenly, they realize Lisa has left something behind.

Max and Nico race to find Lisa before she goes to her interview without the documents she needs! The interview is taking place in a huge office building—will they find her in time.

Nico gives us some information about his background, but is interrupted when Lisa brings some good news.

Lisa and her roommates are all going on vacation. Where will Nico stay now? He and Lisa use a map to show Emma the location of Ms. Kohlhaas' apartment.

Lisa's father comes to pick up Emma, and has good some good news for Nico: he has located Nico's aunt's bicycle shop!

Nico and Lisa leave the house at the same time as Lisa's father and Emma, but then they must part ways.

Nico and Lisa find the bicycle shop, but it is temporarily closed.

Inge puts away groceries as she waits for Nico to arrive.

Nico arrives at Inge's, where he will stay for a few days. She offers him something to eat and to drink.

Inge and Nico do housework together, although neither of them particularly likes it.

Inge and Nico go out to lunch and she asks him about his hobbies. Suddenly, Nico notices a photo of his aunt Yara in the cafe!

It turns out Max has a key to Yara's bicycle shop, although she isn't there. They take a look around and Max asks Nico and Inge if they could do some shopping for him.

Nico and Inge go to the bakery together. It's not easy to decide what kind of bread they would like, but in the end they reach a compromise.

Inge and Nico go to an open air market to shop for fruit and vegetables.

Inge and Nico attempt to make a pizza.

Here we see what happened to Nico's bag, but get no answers yet as to where it ended up.

The story of Nico's lost bag continues: two men find it in the street and check if there's anything useful inside.

We see how Lisa and Selma unknowingly walked right by Nico's lost bag after it got left on the street. They were discussing Lisa's vacation plans and Selma's last trip.

Selma and Lisa talk on the phone. Lisa is still on vacation and enjoying great weather. While they are talking, Selma makes an exciting discovery.

Nico has been wearing clothes borrowed from his new friends ever since he lost his bag. On a bakery run, he runs into Selma, who happens to be carrying it!

Selma and Nico discover that although Nico's phone and passport are still in his bag, two pieces of clothing are gone. They plan to go into town and buy some new clothes.

Nico tries on some new clothes in various sizes while the man who took his shirt walks by unnoticed.

When Nico comes home, Inge offers him some of her late husband's clothing. Just as he has put on something elegant, Selma stops by.

Selma comes to the apartment to see if Nico accidentally took her wallet after their shopping trip. While Nico frantically gets dressed, she talks to Inga about her family.

So where is Yara? Lisa's father asks Nico and Yara's friends a series of questions. Then they find some evidence that Yara might be in Switzerland. But why?

We see how Yara got a phone call two weeks ago that led to her unexpectedly flying to Switzerland.

Unable to figure out whom Yara would've gone to visit in Switzerland, the group decides the best thing to do is to wait for her return.

The guys get ready to play soccer, taking inventory of their equipment and food. Nico doesn't have soccer shoes, but is able to borrow some.

Nico asks Tariq how often he and his friends get to play soccer together. It seems that they are all quite busy, but still manage to stay in pretty good shape.

The guys might not be the good players that they claimed to be, or perhaps they are just out of practice? They debate what the key is to staying in shape.

The guys discuss healthy eating on the soccer field. As it turns out, they have slightly different opinions about what qualifies as healthy food.

On the soccer field, Nico suddenly experiences pain in his foot. The others sit him down and take a look at it.

Nico's friends take him to the doctor's office, where he has an appointment to get his foot examined.

Lisa arrives at the hospital to see how Nico is doing – but it's not so easy to find him.

Nico arrives back at Inga's on crutches, but luckily with no broken bones. At the doctor's orders, he needs to take painkillers, use salve, and most importantly, stay off his leg – something he finds difficult to do.

Selma tells Lisa about her family's life in Syria. At this point, many of the people she knew have moved away.

Nico's friends surprise him with paella, one of his favorite Spanish dishes. They talk about homesickness, but Nico seems quite happy in Germany.

Selma is happy that her family will get to stay in Germany, but she still misses her homeland. She tells Lisa about some of the differences between Germany and Syria.

Tariq and Nico talk about what it takes to run a business. It turns out that Nico is good at fixing bicycles, just like his aunt! And suddenly, Yara arrives back at her shop.

Yara is surprised to see her nephew Nico at her shop, since she didn't realize he was in Germany. Nico, Tariq, and Yara decide to go have a meal at Tariq’s restaurant and tell each other what happened.

Over a meal at Tariq’s restaurant, Nico and Yara talk about home and homesickness. Then Yara explains why she went to Switzerland.

Nico explains that he wants to change some things in his life. In particular, he is not happy being a law student.

Yara and Nico argue a bit about his plans, but in the end she agrees to help him get settled in Germany.

Despite his parents' disapproval, Nico has decided to stay in Germany. Yara is helping him take care of all the details – and has a nice surprise for him, too.

Nico needs to open a German bank account, but he's a bit nervous. Max tells him what to expect and gives him pointers.

Yara is a bit overwhelmed as she tries to catch up with all of the work she didn't complete during her absence. Tarek stops by, and they are both happy to get good news from Nico.

Nico runs into Selma, who wants to withdraw some cash before she goes to her language class. While Nico waits for her, Selma has some trouble with the ATM.

Selma's mother calls and is worried about her, which prompts a discussion about family. As it turns out, Nico and Selma have very different relationships with their respective families.

Selma and Nico have their German lesson with Lisa, who has lots of creative ideas. They use Sebastian's photos to practice describing people, but when Lisa asks Nico to describe his own family, it's clear he'd rather not discuss them.

After the German lesson, Selma realizes that her mother has been trying to reach her. It turns out that there is bad news regarding her father's health.

Selma rushes to see her father in the hospital, and runs into Inge. Inge has a lot to tell Selma, primarily that she's having a dispute with her son.

There's a dispute between the roommates in Lisa's apartment. Nina feels she's the only one making an effort to keep the place clean. In the middle of the fight, Lisa has a good idea regarding Nico...

Yara has a problem with a disrespectful neighbor who always puts his trash container in front of her shop. She tries to talk to her landlord about it, but he's reluctant to get involved.

Lisa knows that something's up with Nina – and she's right, because Nina has life-changing news.

Nico and his friends celebrate his move into Lisa, Nina, and Sebastian's shared apartment. Then an unexpected guest turns up...

Nico's older brother Pepe turns up at the celebration and demands that Nico fly back to Spain with him. Apparently, Nico's parents are quite worried.

Pepe needs a bit more time to convince Nico to come back to Spain with him, so he checks into a hotel for the night. Unfortunately, the machine can't process his credit card and he has to pay in cash.

When Inge says that she's tired of doing the same thing every day, Max and Tariq help her book a trip along the Rhine River.

Selma's father has accidentally left his ID card at the hospital, but doesn't know how to get back there. He runs into Yara on the train platform, and she tells him what his options are for public transportation.

Nico moves into Sebastian, Nina, and Lisa's shared apartment. He's actually collected quite a lot of stuff during his short time in Germany! Meanwhile, Sebastian asks Lisa to help him with a photo project.

Nico and Sebastian are in the middle of moving a heavy piece of furniture when Inge shows up and starts going on and on about her upcoming trip.

Nico and his new roommates talk about his relationship with his brother, Pepe. Then Lisa gets some good news.

In a tense confrontation with her landlord, Yara learns that the rent she pays for her bicycle shop will increase starting in January.

As part of Lisa's German lesson, Nico and Selma discuss their interests. Nico learns that Selma has never learned how to ride a bike, so he offers to teach her.

While Nico and Yara eat dinner, Max and Tariq discuss their experiences with various hobbies and activities. Then Nico's brother shows up again...

Nico and his brother Pepe talk about Nico's direction in life – and why he wants distance from his family.

Lisa's feeling a bit overwhelmed: She doesn't know how she can manage her jobs and other activities and still help out in the apartment. Luckily, her roommates are sympathetic.

Max and Tariq want to help promote Yara’s bicycle shop, since her landlord is raising her rent and she needs more customers. Fortunately, Max already has a good idea...

Yara thinks a new website for her bike shop would help business — but she isn't able to convince Pepe to help her out.

Nico and Selma have plans to ride bikes together, and it seems like it might even be a date. Unfortunately, Selma's mother finds out and interferes.

Pepe’s business isn’t exactly running smoothly: An angry client has called to express dissatisfaction with recent services. Will Pepe be able to fix the situation?

On her trip, Inge meets a man named Jacques at a restaurant, and he invites her to have dinner with him. He seems to be quite charming!

Inge and Jacques make a bet: What did the people at the next table order? If Inge loses, she has to meet up with Jacques again. Who do you think is going to win?

Jacques tells us what he used to do for a living, and Inge is charmed and impressed. They celebrate their budding connection with lemon cake and champagne!

Jacques talks about his life and his many careers, and Inge finds him very charming. But after an awkward ending to their meal, Inge doesn't quite know what to think.

REVIEW 

     German is one of the 10 most difficult languages in the world, according to UNESCO. But DW's new free online language course follows in the footsteps of newcomer Nico Gonzalez to make learning German a lot of fun.

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