Charged under Section 218
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Charged under Section 218 |
| Original title | The doctor determines ... / Charged under § 218 |
| Country of production | Switzerland , Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1966 |
| length | 84, 86 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Aleksander Ford |
| script | David Wechsler |
| production |
Lazar Wechsler for present tense (Zurich) Artur Brauner for CCC (Berlin) Hermann Schwerin for Fono-Film (Berlin) |
| music | Robert Blum |
| camera | Eugen Schüfftan |
| cut | Hermann Haller |
| occupation | |
| |
Accused according to § 218 , Swiss title: The doctor notes ... is a Swiss-German fiction film from 1965/1966, which deals with the topics of birth control and abortion, which were hotly and controversially discussed at the time. Under the direction of Poland's Aleksander Ford , Tadeusz Łomnicki plays a senior physician in distress.
action
The film, kept in a factual, semi-documentary narrative style, begins with the presentation of statistics on the birth rate in a Zurich women's clinic . The idealistic senior physician Dr. Bricklayer. He will soon be confronted with a particularly delicate case. The mother of three Ida Kleiner turns to him when she is pregnant again. Only this time she doesn't want to carry the child to term. A social indication is up for debate, as Ms. Kleiner can no longer afford a fourth child. Since the Swiss law forbids an abortion, the mother-to-be finds herself in great distress. None of the doctors want to help so as not to commit a criminal offense; neither the family doctor Dr. Servant still the clinic physician Maurer. And so Ms. Kleiner turns to a quack named Wiesner in her need . The mother of three dies as a result of the incorrect intervention. It comes to the trial in which the two doctors Diener and Maurer are questioned as expert witnesses. Different points of view, such as that of the general practitioner and that of the head of the gynecological clinic, collide and raise serious fundamental questions, such as birth control, overpopulation , the need for a social indication and questions about different contraceptive methods .
Another case deals with the young saleswoman Sophie Rüesch, who is also pregnant, but not married and thus faces a major acceptance problem. She also tries to have her "problem" solved by the same Engelmacher Wiesner, since the assembled medical profession refuses to help her. Although she survived, Sophie will never have another child because of the contaminated instruments used to perform the abortion. She also had to testify in court when the trial against Wiesner came. Case no. 3 is about the school girl Ursula. She became unintentionally pregnant the "first time" she did, and her belly grew and grew without her parents noticing. After a premature birth , she had to be hospitalized.
The experiences in court and the sometimes fatal and far-reaching conscience and wrong decisions of the medical profession acting in these cases lead to very different consequences for the protagonists. This is how Dr. Finally, Diener decided to spend more time gathering birth control information while Dr. Maurer, who originally decided to give up his post there in order to open a more lucrative private practice, changed his mind and, out of idealistic motives, decided to continue in the clinic in order to be able to provide better help to more desperate women in the future.
Production notes
Accused according to § 218 was made between August 2 and December 21, 1965 in film studios in Zurich (present tense) and Berlin-Spandau (CCC film). The film had its world premiere on April 22, 1966 in three Swiss cinemas in Basel, Bern and Zurich. The German premiere was on June 10, 1966.
Ruth Schoch and Heinz Götze were in charge of production. The film structures were designed by Heinrich Weidemann .
For some cinema veterans, the accused heralded the end of their cinema careers under Section 218 : producer Lazar Wechsler, camera veteran Eugen Schüfftan and Hollywood returnees Lutz Altschul . Even composer Robert Blum only worked once for the cinema after this film.
Reviews
“An educational film made seriously, the color documentary scenes of which speak of his positive attitude towards motherhood and childbirth. Worth seeing especially for parents and educators who struggle with difficulties in educating adolescents. "
"The film, which is unmistakably serious in its intentions, fails due to its creative awkwardness and unclear structure: It grabs various topics, briefly touches on them and immediately pushes them aside."
Web links
- Charged under § 218 in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Accused according to § 218 at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Accused according to § 218. In: Lexikon des Internationale Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .