Antonia's world

Movie
German title	Antonia's world
Original title	Antonia
Country of production	Netherlands , Belgium , United Kingdom
original language	Dutch
Publishing year	1995
length	96 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	Marleen Gorris
script	Marleen Gorris
production	Gerard Cornelisse, ; Hans de Weers, ; Hans de Wolf
music	Ilona Sekacz
camera	Willy Stassen
cut	Wim Louwrier, ; Michiel Reichwein
occupation
	Willeke van Ammelrooy : Antonia; Els Dottermans : Danielle; Dora van der Groen : Allegonde; Veerle van Overloop: Thérèse; Esther Vriesendorp: Thérèse (13 years); Carolien Spoor: Thérèse (6 years); Thyrza Ravesteijn: Sarah; Mil Seghers: Crooked fingers; Jan Decleir : Farmer Sebastian; Elsie de Brauw: Lara; Reinout Bussemaker: Simon; Marina de Graaf: Deedee; Jan Steen: Lips Willem; Catherine ten Bruggencate: crazy Madonna; Paul Kooij: Protestant; Fran Waller Zeper: Olga; Leo Hogenboom: Pastor; Flip felt: chaplain; Wimie Wilhelm: Letta; Filip Peeters : Pitte; Michael Pas: Janne;

Antonia's Line is a feature film of Dutch director Marleen Gorris from the year 1995 .

The drama is based on an original script by Gorris and was produced by the film studios Eurimages , Nederlands Fonds voor de Film, Nederlandse Programma Stichting (NPS) and Prime Time , among others . The film won the coveted trophy in the category of best foreign language film at the 1996 Academy Awards .

action

When she wakes up one morning, old Antonia knows that this day will be the last of her life. Yet she begins it just like anyone else: she opens the shutters in the windows of her bedroom, checks the mail and looks after the cattle. She indulges in old memories:

The widowed Antonia moved back to her home village at the age of forty at the end of the Second World War . She and her daughter Danielle came to bear their mother's grave. In fact, the old woman, who had been cheated on by Antonia's father for years with other women, was still very much alive and only died after numerous curses on her husband. When one notices the return of Antonia in the village, one speaks of the black sheep that has returned. These taunts leave Antonia cold. The eloquent, freedom-loving and not really religious woman revives old friendships in the village, such as the one with the Russian Olga and the reclusive intellectual Krummer Finger , but she doesn't need anyone else. Antonia and Danielle settle down in the pink house on the farm and begin to cultivate Antonia's parents' land.

Through her sense of justice, Antonia soon made the acquaintance of the young Lips Willem . The man is always teased by the children of the village because of his enormous height and his mental retardation. When Antonia stopped the prank of the troublemakers one day while riding and grabs one of the pushy boys and hangs on the branch of a tree, Willem Lips immediately leaves his master's service and follows Antonia, who trots away on her horse. Soon there will be new members on the farm. Danielle rescues Desirée, known as Dede , from the neighboring farm of a rich farmer after she happened to witness how the mentally handicapped Dede was raped by her brother Pitte . Pitte, who had a pitchfork rammed into the lap by Danielle during the liberation operation , then leaves the village.

In the following years, Dede and Lips Willem meet at Antonia's farm, they get married and have a child. Antonia tends to be gentle with the widowed farmer Sebastian , who has only been living in the village for twenty years and, like Antonia, is avoided by the other residents. Farmer Sebastian brings five sons from his first marriage, and soon there is regular dinner on the farm. The imaginative Danielle begins to devote herself to her artistic talent and begins to paint and draw. Danielle soon travels to town and begins studying, but she seems to be missing something. She surprises her mother one day while working in the field with her desire to have a child. However, Danielle does not want a husband. Soon, mother and daughter set off for the city to look for a suitable man of childbearing potential. In a maternity home, the two meet Letta , who Antonia and Danielle can soon present with a suitable man. After spending hours together in the hotel, Danielle quickly leaves town with her mother and returns to the farm pregnant. She gives birth to a girl whom she gives the name Thérèse . Thérèse develops into a child prodigy who is soon way ahead of the other children in school in math and music. She also received private lessons from Krummer Finger, who familiarized her with the works of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. The yard also fills up when Antonia takes in pregnant Letta with her two children. Letta soon hooks up with the chaplain who has just left church , and since she loves being pregnant, she gives birth to him a child every year. Danielle discovers her homosexuality and has a relationship with Lara , the teacher at Thérèse.

The idyll at Antonia's farm threatens to collapse when Pitte returns to the village after years of absence. His father has passed away and he is immediately on hand to share in the legacy of the extremely profitable farm, much to the annoyance of his younger brother Janne . Pitte soon enjoys approaching the farm and fields of Antonia in a provocative manner, which means emotional torment especially for Dede. When Pitte raped the 13-year-old Thérèse, who is now studying mathematics in the city, Antonia feels compelled to act. She grabs a rifle and rushes into her friend Olga's village café. Antonia leads Pitte, who is lingering there, to the village square and begins to curse him because she cannot bring herself to kill a person. Pitte should suffer terrible agony if he did not leave the village as quickly as possible. That same evening the prophecy comes true when Pitte, who had to take heavy beatings for his crime from the five sons of the farmer Sebastian, visits his parents' farm. His younger brother Janne sees the time has come to get rid of his older brother and become the master of his father's farm himself. Janne unceremoniously drowns the seriously injured Pitte in the well of the courtyard. The village is silent about the murder of the rapist.

Thérèses pain begins to ease over the years. She continues to devote herself to her mathematics studies and occasionally to music. She soon began to teach mathematics at the university herself and was also interested in the opposite sex. But no man can live up to their demands. The childhood friendship with Letta's eldest son Simon turns into love, but Thérèse is not ready to marry him. When she becomes pregnant, she is unsure whether to keep the child. After much deliberation, Thérèse decides in favor of her first-born, Sarah , with whom she has never been able to develop a relationship throughout her life. The growing Sarah is interested in literature , likes to write stories and seems to have a second face. As she writes a funeral speech in honor of the still living Dede, Sarah's stiffly recited sentences begin to turn into a prophecy: Dede's husband, Lips Willem, dies in a tractor accident, Letta dies giving birth to her thirteenth child , Crooked finger hangs himself out of sadness at the realization of a world not worth living in and the time has come for Antonia to say goodbye.

When she wakes up that morning, old Antonia knows that this day will be the last of her life. Nevertheless, she starts the day like any other: she opens the shutters of her bedroom, waters the cattle and checks the mail. In the afternoon, she celebrates a meal together with her friends and relatives on the farm, lets herself in for a short dance with farmer Sebastian and then calls Sarah over. Antonia had once promised her great-granddaughter that she would be the first to inform her of her impending death. Family and friends say goodbye to Antonia as she gently falls asleep from life.

reception

Marleen Gorrs' fourth directorial work premiered on September 12, 1995 at the Toronto International Film Festival . Ten days later Antonia's world premiered in Dutch cinemas. Critics rated the work as a humorous, bizarre or melancholy family saga and as one of the best European films of the 1995/96 cinema year. Due to the strong female characters presented in the film, Antonia's world was mostly associated with topics such as feminism and emancipation and valued as a song of praise for friendship and intuition, as well as tolerance, self-realization and independence. The Dutch actress Willeke van Ammelrooy , who can be seen in the title role of Antonia , received very good reviews . Few critical voices criticized the fact that the plot of Gorries' most successful directorial work looked overdrawn and exaggerated, and attested to the lack of a plot structure. The film, which opened in the US on February 2, 1996, grossed $ 4.8 million in North America alone.

In Germany, the film was released on September 5, 1996, and received good to very good reviews. More than a year later, on November 6, 1997, the film celebrated a re-release in Germany .

An audio film version was made in 1997, produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk and spoken by Bernd Benecke.

Reviews

“Antonia's idiosyncrasy, liberalism and independence shake the bourgeois village world, which has been dominated by men up to now, and Gorris' sometimes exaggerated its bizarre nature. Love and humanity in Antonia's kibbutz occasionally swell too exaggerated from every pore, and the narrative rhythm seems too hasty towards the end. The advantages of this film, its strong female characters, its cheeky provocative tone and its honest view of life on important issues are only insignificantly hindered. " ( Blickpunkt: Film )

"A glimmer of hope in European cinema: original & poetic." ( Cinema )

"Powerful, vital family saga spanning four generations, the story of an independent women's dynasty, mythical utopia and provocative counter-image in one, whose fairytale-narrative character vividly evokes important basic concerns of the emancipation movement." ( Filmdienst )

"A wonderful eccentric film about the size of feminist friendship, freedom, intuition and solidarity." (Spirituality & Health)

“The story of a family as a partly macabre, partly melancholy epic. Absolutely worth seeing. " (TV feature film)

“A grandiose family saga about the fate of five generations of women, in which the Dutch filmmaker Marleen Gorris sings a partly humorous, partly melancholy song of praise for tolerance, self-realization and independence. The excellently illustrated and brilliantly played drama deals critically with male macho behavior and puts the female roles in the foreground, but never lapses into clumsy black and white painting. 'Antonia's World', which was awarded the Foreign Oscar '96, is a small, bizarre film jewel that will primarily appeal to the female video audience. ” (Video Week)

Remarks

The Belgian actor Jan Decleir, who plays the farmer Sebastian, was also seen in Mike Van Diem's drama Karakter in 1997 , which also received the Academy Award for best foreign language film at the Academy Awards a year later.

The US distribution title of the film is Antonia's Line .

Awards

Marleen Gorris' film won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1996. It was the second foreign Oscar for the Netherlands after Fons Rademakers ' 1987 winning The Attack and at the same time the first Academy Award in this category to be given to a woman. In 1995, in the director 's home country, Antonia's World was awarded the Golden Calf in the categories of Director and Best Actress at the Nederlands Film Festival . A year later there was a nomination for the British Academy Film Award . There the work had to surrender in the category of Best Non-English Language Film Patrice Leconte's historical drama Ridicule - Defeated by the ridiculousness of appearances . In the same year, the film was nominated for the GLAAD Media Awards , a prize that honors , among other things, outstanding films, documentaries and television series with an LGBT context.