The Confusions of Young Torless

In an elite, late 19th century Austrian military school four adolescent boys become enmeshed in a dangerous rite of passage: Törless, the witness whose philosophical detachment is threatened by a brief and disturbing brush with homosexuality; Basini, the lacking character and effeminate victim who’s lack of morals mixed with extravagant life leads him to unpayable debts, theft and an enslavement by the predatory duo of Beineberg and Reiting. Beineberg, the esoteric mystic obsessed by achieving domination through spiritual powers and Reiting, the unscrupulous manipulator who prefers to use physical torture in order to dehumanize his victim. Sensitive and philosophically-minded Törless, both fascinated and repulsed by his closest friends’ practices, is torn between his moral upbringing and his fascination for the forbidden fruit, the dark and passionate, immoral and sadistic aspects of life. Based on the novel by Robert Musil, “The Confusions of Young Törless” was widely considered to be prophetic of the rise of fascism.