Daumen Hoch!

In the organizer's words:

The Trudering Cultural Center, Wasserburger Landstraße 32, offers adventures on the big screen to anyone with wanderlust and anyone who wants to learn something new about the world: The film "Thumbs up - Hitchhiking to the Far East" traces the unusual journey of Bastian Maria and his wife Vivian to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. "Thumbs up" is Bastian Maria's travel reportage about challenges, changes of plan and hitchhiking during the pandemic. They cover more than 10,000 kilometers through twelve countries. They are chased by the Pakistani police, threatened by an Asian elephant and picked up by Kyrgyz eagle hunters. They dance at a wedding in Punjab, learn how to milk goats and have to survive a threatening couchsurfing experience. They set off indefinitely, but after a year and a half their journey comes to an abrupt end...
Bastian Maria, born in 1990, grew up in a Swabian village on Lake Constance. As a young athlete, he is pursuing a dream: to take part in the Olympic Games one day. But his sporting achievements are not enough. But "being there is everything". He traveled as a spectator to the Games in London 2012 and Rio 2016, followed by vacation trips to the indigenous peoples of Ethiopia, to the highest peaks in the Himalayas and along the volcanoes of Central America. Hitchhiking and couchsurfing are important to him: "I take something away from every encounter and am very grateful for it." In 2020, the industrial engineer quit his job in the automotive industry and set off for Tokyo. It was to be the biggest adventure of his life...
Today, Bastian Maria lives as a photographer and digital nomad with his family of three in places that are unknown to them. However, Lake Constance will always remain the home of this outdoor enthusiast who loves his homeland.