The Straw That Broke poster

The Straw That Broke

Five volumes. 31 hours. One collapsing multiverse.

10.0(1)20211h 10m1

"The Straw That Broke" is a surrealist, micro-budget meta-fiction feature blending retro-futuristic aesthetics with philosophy to explore the boundaries between reality and the digital realm. "The virtual is viral," announces Clea Bardan, editor at DeBase SF, to Claudia Weiss, her overworked author of futuristic pulp fiction. Clea demands an impossible task: write five volumes within 31 hours. Claudia's journey spans from Stuttgart to Nueva York, a Harkonnen spaceship, and a water-based planet holding the secret to saving the multiverse from the O-Cloud—a virus destroying sentient life at its ontological core. But how much of this reality is authentic, and can a talking mouse from Claudia's own stories save the multiverse? Using diverse cinematic devices, the film tackles deep metaphysical questions while remaining a poignant story about loss, love, and hope for us all.

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  • TMDB

    10.0/10

    1 votes

Status
Released
Budget
$8K
Box office
—
Language
German
  • surreal
  • stop motion
  • arthaus
  • philosophical
  • cosmic horror
  • handmade
  • science fiction
  • experimental
  • low budget
  • audacious
  • meta fiction

Top billed cast

Behind the camera

Writers

Tom Whalen

Produced in

Germany

Gallery

Still from The Straw That BrokeStill from The Straw That BrokeStill from The Straw That BrokeStill from The Straw That BrokeStill from The Straw That BrokeStill from The Straw That BrokeStill from The Straw That BrokeStill from The Straw That Broke

Videos

Release dates

  • GermanyDE

    • Premiere26 Oct 2021

Frequently asked questions

The Straw That Broke was released on 26 October 2021.

Audience reviews

3
  • C

    Cosmic_Shrimp_12051

    7/12/2026

    Review by the German Federal Film and Media Assessment Board (FBW) Rating: Certified "Highly Commended" (Prädikat Wertvoll) Starting from a frigidly futuristic business setting, an appropriately detached editor gives the chronically underpaid author Claudia the assignment to write five volumes of her sci-fi pulp novels within 36 hours, despite having only three data ports at her disposal. Thus begins a trip tha…

  • R

    renatosettembre

    8/10/2026

    Though completed in 2021, *The Straw That Broke* seems very contemporary, maybe even more than it did a few years ago, due to the sudden acceleration of the dangerous dynamics we see at play. The plot is somewhat encrypted, so at times I felt a bit lost, but so is the film’s main character Claudia, a creator of pulp SF virts, video novels in the film’s alternate future. What I liked about the film is the balance betw…

  • R

    Raredave

    8/10/2026

    10/10

    The planet in the movie *The Straw That Broke* is the kind of “other” world you might find in works by Stanislaw Lem or Philip K. Dick. But the screenplay was written by modernist American writer Tom Whalen and the film directed by German visual artist and filmmaker Valentin Hennig. STRAW, as this film is affectionately known, had a limited released in 2021. Its appearance on YouTube will be a milestone, allowing …

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