5 years of life

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title 5 years of life
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2013
length 96 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Stefan Schaller
script Stefan Schaller,
David Finck
production Jochen Laube
music Enik
camera Armin Franzen
cut Simon Blasi
occupation

5 years of life is a film adaptation of the autobiography five years of my life of Murat Kurnaz from the year 2013 . The feature film by Stefan Schaller tells the story of Murat Kurnaz, who was innocent in the Guantanamo prison camp and who was accused of being an Islamist terrorist .

The film premiered on January 23, 2013 at the Max Ophüls Festival and was shown in cinemas from May 23, 2013. It was released on DVD on November 29, 2013.

action

The German Turk Murat Kurnaz has been held as an inmate without charge in the internment camp at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba since January 2002 . Gail Holford is interrogating Kurnaz to find out why he became an Islamist terrorist, as he is alleged to be. Kurnaz is not informed of what is charged with him.

Psychological and physical violence is used against him, with Holford taking on both roles of Good Cop, Bad Cop .

Homesick and longing for his family in the United States , Holford is under pressure from his superiors, who expect him to make a confession from Kurnaz. In order to soften Kurnaz, he pretends that he is allowed to leave the camp. Kurnaz is taken to a helipad. He boards the helicopter, but is pulled out again and beaten up. The following day he receives a letter from his mother in which the entire text has been made illegible.

Kurnaz spent a year in solitary confinement . Yet he does not make a confession. Eventually he realizes that he will not be believed and begins to fight against the system in the camp.

The film plot ends in 2004; Kurnaz has two years in prison before he is released.

background

Five Years of Life is the first feature film by Stefan Schaller, who was born in the same year as Murat Kurnaz and who was affected by the reports about Kurnaz's fate. The film was his diploma thesis at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy . Schaller had followed the case of the imprisoned German-Turkish man in the media before he began his studies in 2005 and met his lawyer Bernhard Docke .

The film was produced by teamWorx in 2012 . The Hessischer Rundfunk was in charge ; the film was a collaboration with Saarländischer Rundfunk , Arte , SWR television , Bayerischer Rundfunk and Radio Bremen .

The film was shot in Brandenburg and in the Babelsberg studios . During the filming, Schaller used former soldiers, including American ones , as extras .

Murat Kurnaz attended the cinema premiere of the film on May 23, 2013 in Berlin.

Reviews

Hauke ​​Friedrichs judged for Zeit online : “The director presented an impressive film in his debut and did not fall into the traps that the subject holds. It focuses on the prisoner's confrontation with the American interrogation specialist Gail Holford (Ben Miles). "

Martina Knoben wrote at Süddeutsche .de : “If Stefan Schaller brings the story of suffering of the prominent ex-prisoner Murat Kurnaz to the cinema in order to use the feature film to point out the injustice of this camp, then that in itself is a good thing. Even if the film is not entirely successful, or if it ends up being too harmless - at least that is what the real Murat Kurnaz attested to the film. "

In the Frankfurter Rundschau online , Anke Westphal stated about Stefan Schaller: "It takes more directors like him who masterly reclaim uncomfortable topics for German cinema."

At Welt.de , Hanns-Georg Rodek said: “We want to see whether the committee that determines German films for the Oscar race this summer will dare to present this provocation to the American jurors. And thus would have more courage than the Berlinale , which Frank-Walter Steinmeier wanted to spare from such an imposition. "

For the online edition of the Stuttgarter Zeitung , Thomas Klingenmaier wrote: “Stefan Schaller [...] gives [...] the reins seemingly with astonishing sovereignty. He conveys the constriction, the chicane, the deprivation of stimuli in Guantánamo so vividly that the director's performance is almost out of sight. The camera seems to be an invisible witness of the real that has penetrated the innermost restricted circle. "

Walli Müller judged NDR Info online: “Even if the film saves the audience from waterboarding and electric shocks, it is disturbing! Mainly because it is all so incomprehensible: Such conditions are suspected in the dark torture cellars of a military dictatorship, but not in the name of the USA! "

On the website of Deutsche Welle , Jochen Kürten stated: “In his film [...], Schaller focuses almost exclusively on two people: Murat Kurnaz and Gail Holford [...]. This almost chamber play-like approach gives the film a tremendous density. In doing so, Schaller does not do without dramaturgically pointed scenes. But he doesn't do this for the sake of the spectacle. "

In the Badische Zeitung , Martin Schwickert wrote: "The strength of the film is that it does not stigmatize its main character as a victim."

At Filmstarts.de , Gregor Torinus wrote: “In addition to the oppressively realistic portrayal of the Guantanamo system, the question of what should actually still be defended if a democracy to hunt terrorists breaks its own constitution without hesitation and simply overrides human rights. "

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Film Lexicon
  2. ↑ a b swr.de
  3. ↑ a b Stronger than Guantanamo . In: Frankfurter Rundschau online , May 23, 2013, accessed on July 7, 2013.
  4. ↑ a b 1.725 days of Guantánamo . In: Die Zeit online , May 24, 2013, accessed on July 7, 2013.
  5. ↑ a b c The Murat Kurnaz case in the cinema . In: Deutsche Welle online , May 23, 2013, accessed on July 7, 2013.
  6. ↑ Filmstarts.de
  7. ↑ a b Prices for “Five Years of Life” ( Memento from July 1, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ). In: Saarländischer Rundfunk online , January 28, 2013, accessed on July 7, 2013.
  8. ↑ The film about Murat Kurnaz premieres ( Memento from June 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on stern.de
  9. ↑ Fresh from the script seminar . In: Süddeutsche.de , May 28, 2013, accessed on July 7, 2013.
  10. ↑ Justice for the "Bremen Taliban" Kurnaz . In: Welt.de , May 23, 2013, accessed on July 7, 2013.
  11. ^ War of attrition in Guantánamo . In: Stuttgarter-Zeitung.de , May 23, 2013, accessed on July 7, 2013.
  12. ↑ Murat Kurnaz's story: "5 Years of Life" ( Memento from June 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). In: NDR.de , accessed on July 7, 2013.
  13. ↑ Arrested, interrogated, tortured: drama "5 Years of Life " . In: Badische Zeitung , online version from May 23, 2013.
  14. ↑ Critique of the Filmstarts.de editorial team, 5 years of life , accessed on July 8, 2013.