A quartet of twentysomething Germans struggles with issues of success, love, and identity in director Annette Ernst's 2003 comedy drama, Kiss and Run. Struggling actress Emma (Maggie Peren, also the screenwriter) was on her way to a potentially career-changing audition when she got stuck in an elevator with friend and co-worker Max (Ken Duken)--an odd cinemaphile of a man with a knack for staging his own suicides, as was done in his favorite film Harold and Maude. With nothing left to do but dwell on her luck and idle career, Emma becomes more sullen when Max informs her that their place of employment--a video rental store--is going to be remodeled into a tanning salon. Meanwhile, Emma and Max's friends Christo (Hinnerk Schoenemann) and Malia (Anja Herden) are rapidly approaching their wedding day, only to begin worrying if their current hot sexual relationship will carry-over once they become husband and wife. Kiss and Run marked Ernst's feature length directorial debut and was also selected to screen at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival.