Elementarteilchen (in English The Elementary Particles or Atomised) is a 2006 German film based on the controversial novel Les Particules Élémentaires by Michel Houellebecq. The film was written and directed by Oskar Roehler and produced by Oliver Berben and Bernd Eichinger. It stars Moritz Bleibtreu as Bruno, Christian Ulmen as Michael, Martina Gedeck as Christiane, Franka Potente as Annabelle, and Nina Hoss as Jane.

The film had its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in Germany in February 2006. The script for the film was written three years before filming began. The film was shot entirely in Germany. Cities and states in Germany used for filming included Thuringia and Berlin.

Plot

The film focuses on Michael and Bruno and their disturbed sexuality. They are half-brothers who are very different from each other. They both dealt with a horrendous childhood growing because their mother was a hippie and watched after her own affairs and not the boys. Michael grows up to become a molecular biologist and in doing so becomes more fascinated with genes than actual women. Bruno, a high school teacher, on the other hand, is obsessed with his own sexual desires and systematically drowns himself in failed attempts with women and nights with prostitutes. Michael, after years of work with the technology that can ultimately lead to cloning human beings, comes back to his homeland, only to find his childhood friend Annabelle still single. They start an affair, striving to overcome all of Michael's social limitations. Bruno, meanwhile, enters a psychological hospital, after having been turned down by a student. After his stay, he meets Christiane, who's also addicted to sex. They then begin an open, and arguably "modern" relationship.