Foreign assignment (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Foreign assignment |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Till Endemann |
| script | Holger Karsten Schmidt |
| production | Relevant Film Produktion GmbH, Heike Wiehle-Timm |
| music | Jens Grötzschel |
| camera | Lars Liebold |
| cut | Jens Müller |
| occupation | |
| |
Foreign assignment is a German television movie , which on 17 October 2012 at the First was sent. It plays against the background of the German participation in the war in Afghanistan . Three young soldiers, played by Max Riemelt , Hanno Koffler and Omar El-Saeidi , become increasingly entangled in deadly conflicts between the Afghan population, the Taliban and the US Army , despite their efforts to only provide humanitarian aid . Bernadette Heerwagen as development worker Anna Wöhler and Devid Striesow as captain Herbert Glowalla play other important roles .
action
A group of soldiers from the German Armed Forces is sent to Afghanistan for the ISAF mission. Daniel Gerber, Ronnie Klein and Emal Demir are also among those assigned. The young doctor Sarah Schulz joins them. Shortly after arriving at their location, the inexperienced men react nervously when a man appears with a donkey in an area marked as a danger zone and does not respond to calls. To their relief, however, they do not need their rifles brought to the ready, as the man walks on with his donkey. The soldiers deployed in Afghanistan for the first time find it blatant that there is still a life as shown here. At their place of work they get to know the young teacher Anna Wöhler. She teaches the boys in Milanh village. When Gerber, Klein and Demir introduce themselves to the mayor of their location, he wants to know whether Demir is an Afghan. Demir replies that he was born in Kabul . The mayor of the small village speaks a little German, as much as Anna taught him, he says. He refuses any help and says that his compatriots are very proud. Anna interferes and points out that help could be used to rebuild the destroyed school. Mayor Jamil agrees with this. Daniel Gerber, the highest of the three, wants to discuss this with his manager. Jamil says to Gerber: “Property makes hearts small.” The food given to him would be shared fairly among his compatriots, he promises. Anna asks the young soldiers to take them with them in the wagon when a young woman who appears rather desperate comes running up and wants to be taken along too. The soldiers react nervously, the young woman has to stay behind. Daniel Gerber passed the motto on to his superior department: “No interference at all.” Anna told the men that the Taliban Tara, as her name is, cut off two fingers because she had painted her fingernails. Gerber, Klein and Demir can hardly believe what they are hearing.
During one of their trips to the village, the three soldiers are ambushed. A very young girl near a well screams for help while being shot at. Sergeant Gerber tries to pull her out of the danger zone, but too late, she is dead. Gerber later vented his displeasure with his superior, Captain Herbert Glowalla, who, when asked by the press department, said it was going on acted a false report and everything is fine. The friends learn from Emal Demir that his mother worked as a teacher in Afghanistan. When the Taliban occupied the country, women were no longer allowed to exercise this office. Actually, women were not allowed to do anything at all from this point on. One morning two of them were standing in front of the door, two shots had been fired and his mother was immediately dead. In a conversation between Glowalla and Gerber, both agree that the death of children is the worst thing that could happen when they discuss the case of the girl from the well who was shot by Taliban fighters. Glowalla says the Taliban doesn't care how many of their own compatriots lose their lives as a result of their actions. The Taliban would not offer education, but a dictatorship in the guise of a religion. He went on to say about Gerber that if they, the soldiers, left the country, the Taliban would have won and the majority of Afghans would have lost. When Gerber spoke to Anna Wöhler some time later, she assured him that she was impressed by the people in this country and their dignity and generosity. Anna believes that the soldiers' help makes people feel that the world is not completely abandoning them. Emal thinks that is still far too little, Daniel and Ronnie have different opinions about what can be achieved in the country. All four are aware of their powerlessness and know that everything they do here can only be partial. When Daniel asked what happened to the girls, why they wouldn't go to school, Anna replied regretfully that they weren't in Kunduz or Kabul here . When Emal quotes from the Koran , the village's Malik stands up and says that a German soldier who was once an Afghan does not have to explain the Koran to him. For his part, he tries to convey that you have to give people something in order for them to change. The Taliban are warlords . The fields, which are a thorn in the side of the occupiers, are the main source of income for both the Taliban and the farmers. The soldiers should guard the poppy fields , then he would make sure that the girls could also attend school.
When the soldiers come to school in the village the next day, everything is dead quiet. One wants to know from Emal whether today is a Muslim holiday , which he denies. Then an Afghan appears and asks the soldiers to come with him. All the people of the village have gathered at one grave. Jamil's son Yasin has been killed. He was herding cattle when someone shot him in the head and killed him. Klein, who had developed a friendly relationship with the boy, is stunned. It is said that Yasin was killed by an American soldier, that the Americans carried out a military operation , and then withdrew. There was an eyewitness, Yasin's brother Asib. It turns out that Yasin was "knocked out" because he was walking straight into the Delta Force unit's hideout , saying there was no other option. Later, Gerber has to lie to Malik against his better judgment when he asks him if he could find out anything about the death of Yasin. Another problem arises when Anna Wöhler asks Emal Demir for help for the young Tara, who has been promised a Talib. The Taliban would be coming soon and picking up Tara. Anna speaks out urgently for the young woman, whom one absolutely has to help. When Demir informs Captain Glowalla, he agrees that the woman should actually be helped. However, they would be relocated to a new location towards the end of the week. Emal asks his friends to help bring Tara to a bigger city where she can go to international school. Daniel Gerber refers to the service regulations, which his friends Emal and Ronnie cannot understand. Emal says that yesterday he still thought that we were doing something useful here, but today he doesn't know anything anymore. When the young soldiers want to go back to their base that evening, it becomes impossible because a bridge has been blown up. This is how they set up camp at school. During the night, they hear gunshots coming from the village under attack by the Taliban. The Taliban kidnapped Anna, Tara and Emal. Daniel Gerber and Ronnie Klein receive an order from their operations management team to wait and see. Ronnie doesn't want to wait and resists, which leads to an argument between him and Daniel. Ronnie immediately takes up the pursuit of the Taliban, whereupon Daniel pretends that the connection has been broken so that he cannot hear anything when he receives another order from the operations team. Together with Ronnie, he continues the chase. In a cave they discover the Taliban's hiding place and see that the men have tied Anna. You force them to read something. Anna was obviously mistreated. After the young woman has finished the last words, the men kill her with a shot in the neck. In a niche in the cave are Emal and Tara, both of whom are bound and gagged. When Emal learns that the Taliban have executed Anna, he loses control and rushes towards the men. He manages to shoot some of them before he is struck down himself. In the general confusion, the two young soldiers manage to untie Tara and the three of them flee.
Captain Glowalla has to tell Daniel Gerber that there is nothing more he can do for him, his order was clear. Gerber, who took all the guilt on himself and claimed that Klein had nothing to do with his decision, is dismissed from the Bundeswehr for refusing to obey . Glowalla says farewell that he appreciates him as a private person and that he has his full respect. Sarah Schulz lets Daniel know that almost all soldiers here would think he did the right thing, and she thinks that too. After all, Tara was able to escape the Taliban and is now in Kabul, where she will attend the international school.
The final scene shows Asib, who, having been robbed of his brother Yasin, carries out a suicide attack on a US convoy.
production
Production notes, filming, background
Foreign use was produced by Relevant Film together with Degeto Film and the WDR . The film was shot from October 4 to November 15, 2011 in Morocco and Cologne and the surrounding area. The film was funded by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW Filmförderung Hamburg-Schleswig-Holstein BKM.
During the shootings, which were mostly made in Morocco, the heat was often over 40 degrees, which was not always easy but also a completely new experience for the actors who had to shoot with heavy gear. For the shooting, Moroccan tanks had to be matched to those of the Bundeswehr and provided with German flags. It was also not easy to import weapons and ammunition into the North African country, for which not only various approval procedures had to be set in motion, but also cash payments had to be made. The Afghan villagers in the film are portrayed by Moroccans. A trainer tried to teach them the Pashto language, which is common in Afghanistan .
The magazine Hörzu wrote in its report on the film that the film addresses what German soldiers would sometimes experience during their deployment, especially if they were deployed in provinces where fundamentalists had the upper hand, such as Kunduz, Darreh, Chabar or Baghlan. The script, which was developed over a period of six years, took into account numerous interviews with soldiers in the country. For example, the strict rule not to interfere in internal Afghan affairs was adopted. They learned from a soldier that his inquiries into the whereabouts of an Afghan interpreter revealed that she should be stoned, which brought tears to the eyes of the man even after four years.
The film is preceded by a foreword that begins as follows: "Abroad Mission" is the first German television film that specifically deals with the deployment of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan and tells of the life and work of German soldiers on site. The WDR remains true to its tradition of dealing with current, explosive, political issues.
Max Riemelt had already played a German soldier in the Kosovo mission in the film Snipers Valley - Murderous Peace (2007) . Hanno Koffler had previously received several awards for his role in Nacht vor Augen (2008) as a traumatized German soldier who returned from Afghanistan.
publication
The premiere of the film took place on July 2, 2012 at the Munich Film Festival as part of the New German Television series .
Following the first broadcast in the series Filmmittwoch im Erste on October 17, 2012, Das Erste broadcasted the talk show Anne Will with the topic of the foreign assignment Afghanistan - was it worth the sacrifice? out.
The film has been available on DVD since November 30, 2012, published by Dynasty Film (Intergroove). Interviews are included as extras on the DVD.
Actual background
The war in Afghanistan encompasses a series of interrelated armed conflicts that have raged in the country since 1978. The war in Afghanistan since 2001 is the latest phase in the Afghan conflict that has been going on since 1978. Since 2003, the Afghan central government has been increasingly exposed to attacks by guerrilla groups, often referred to as the “neo-Taliban”. In February 2010, NATO and the Afghan National Army operated around 700 military bases in Afghanistan .
reception
Audience rating
Foreign use was seen by 3.69 million viewers when it was first broadcast, corresponding to a market share of 11.8%.
criticism
“Endemann's careful, detail-obsessed staging and the calm, stoic presence of Vedat Erincin as the village head create an impressive idea of how much trust has already been destroyed between these parties - and how slowly and difficult it would be to regain it. But all of Afghanistan and the whole war together in one television production: that's just too much. A little more courage for something special, for the gap would have done the film good. "
“But the judgment from the cozy sofa quickly appears cheap. The film shows that in his extreme situations there is no such thing as a weighing both-and, but that a clear edge is constantly required and far-reaching decisions have to be made. The individual theatrical performances often outweigh the burden of the construction: The way Max Riemelt shows a person who wants to become a professional soldier in this idealism, which is still unfamiliar for the German armed forces, is impressive. Also the declared claim of the director Till Endemann to make the film more documentary than staged is happily fulfilled by largely dispensing with emotionalizing means in image and sound. "
"The Afghan War at Prime Time " was the title of Zeit Online and said:
"The TV film shows a lot of clichés, but asks the right questions."
The TV critic and media journalist Rainer Tittelbach came to the conclusion:
“So much physique has rarely been seen on German television. [...] The actors take the audience by the hand, lead them through the foreign, through the impassable terrain of a genre that does not exist on German television. An equally authentic, gripping and brutally realistic war drama! […] Conclusion: 'Foreign assignment' [sic] is an authentic and gripping war drama that brings psychology, politics and the physical, without which even a TV film no longer works today, into an ideal field of tension. "
TV Spielfilm magazine gave it the highest rating of five stars. Their conclusion was:
"Courageous drama, honest and differentiated"
Joachim Käppner from the Süddeutsche tried to imagine what was going on in the young soldiers during such an operation and summarized his judgment with the words:
“Still, 'Auslands Einsatz' is an atmospherically dense, successful film; it shows people on all sides facing decisions for which nothing and nobody has prepared them. Above all, he describes soldiers in an unimaginably foreign country who very soon ask themselves the question: What are we actually doing here? What's the point? And if it makes any sense, why do we want to leave as soon as possible? "
The critic of the television magazine Hörzu was of the opinion that the film offers "differentiated and multi-layered educational television in the best sense", even if it raises "many questions" and "no simple answers":
“Complex, gripping, relentless, uncomfortable: the film gets under your skin. Great!"
The television magazine Gong awarded five out of six stars, which corresponds to the rating "very good" and summarized:
“An authentic, gripping as well as brutally realistic war drama with convincing main actors. The Afghanistan dilemma, packed very exciting. "
Web links
- Foreign deployment in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Foreign assignment at filmportal.de
- Foreign assignment at the production company Relevant Film (with press booklet)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for use abroad . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2012 (PDF; test number: 135 507 V).
- ↑ Foreign assignment at the production company Relevant Film. Retrieved October 18, 2012.
- ↑ Susanne Rabsahl: You are in the middle of a war. Film about German soldiers in Afghanistan. In: WDR.de. Westdeutscher Rundfunk Cologne , October 17, 2012, archived from the original on October 22, 2012 ; accessed on September 5, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Foreign assignment. In: TV magazine Hörzu. No. 41 of October 5, 2012, pp. 18, 19, 80, 82.
- ↑ Foreign assignment (PDF; 5.4 MB) at relevantfilm (press release). Retrieved March 6, 2013.
- ↑ Foreign assignment at filmportal.de , accessed on October 18, 2012.
- ↑ Foreign assignment ( Memento of the original from July 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at the Munich Film Festival 2012. Retrieved October 18, 2012.
- ↑ Christoph Twickel: Bundeswehr Talk with Anne Will - "Our soldiers are being burned" , Spiegel Online from October 18, 2012.
- ↑ Foreign use DVD at tv-kult.com. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
- ↑ a b Rainer Tittelbach's assignment abroad . In: tittelbach.tv . Retrieved March 6, 2013.
- ^ Tim Slagman: ARD film "Abroad". Talk, talk, talk in the Hindu Kush. Spiegel Online, October 16, 2012, accessed September 5, 2017 .
- ↑ Jan Wiele: "Foreign assignment" in the first. Imagine it's war and we're going . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 17, 2012, accessed on September 4, 2017 .
- ↑ H. Friederich's foreign assignment: “Afghanistankkrieg at prime time”. In: Zeit Online.de. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
- ↑ Foreign assignment at tvspielfilm.de. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
- ↑ Foreign assignment Joachim Käppner: What are we actually doing here? In: Süddeutsche.de. Retrieved March 6, 2013.
- ↑ Foreign assignment In: TV magazine Gong. No. 41 of October 5, 2012, p. 81.
