Nirvana is Here

A chance encounter in a flea market parking lot and a severed finger embroil two Vietnamese German siblings — and a vividly drawn cast of eccentric neighbors, a tough teen biker with a crush, a rollerblading girl gang, and many others — on a mission to save a desperate young Vietnamese woman from her pursuer.

Two German siblings, 12-year-old Tâm and 14-year-old Dennis Nguyen, encounter a young Vietnamese woman in trouble in a flea market parking lot. When Tâm’s spy movie-obsessed schoolmate, Alex, discovers an abandoned backpack with a photo of a happy couple with Tâm’s address on the back, it will lead the two to discover a severed finger. Worried, Tâm searches for the desperate woman, aided by her reluctant brother, and eventually finds Hoa Bin, who escaped from her kidnapper — who’s still tracking her down. Drawn to Hoa Bin, Tâm vows to save her — even if she has to break her stern-but-loving mom’s rules, dodge the bad guys in wild chases through the Berlin streets, and combine the forces of Marina, the Nguyens’ tough-chick neighbor, Jutta, an elderly retired actress, a rollerblading girl gang, and many others to do so.

In Ross’s empathetic, loose-but-controlled lines, cartoonishly expressive kids interact against and within the realistically depicted urban environments, given texture and grit by screen-tones. Nirvana is Here is a contemporary crime thriller that has kid-detective, adventure, diasporic, coming-of-age, and love story elements, set in Berlin’s working-class Lichtenberg district against a backdrop of very current social issues.