Bloch: Shadow child

Episode in the Bloch series
Original title	Shadow child
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
length	90 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
classification	Episode 14 ( list )
First broadcast	January 7, 2009 on Das Erste
Rod
Director	Christoph Stark
script	Silke Zertz
production	Maran movie
music	Irmin Schmidt
camera	Ralf Nowak
cut	Olga Barthel
occupation
	Dieter Pfaff : Dr. Maximilian Bloch; Ulrike Krumbiegel : Clara Born; Jonathan Dümcke : Tommy Born; Florian Bartholomäi : Lasse / Lukas Hilversum; Anke Sevenich : Maria Hilversum; André Jung : Dieter Hilversum; Anna Fischer : Meret Zimmermann; Thomas Thieme : Professor Frank Huebner; Philipp Denzel : sports teacher; Christian Koerner : Jens Fahrenholz, ; Lasse's trainer; Luana Bellinghausen : Dani Muskau; Christine Kallfass : nurse; Sebastian Mirow : Skydiving instructor; Tanja de Wendt : scooter driver;
chronology
← Predecessor ; Forgive, don't forget	Successor → ; gut feeling

Schattenkind is a German TV film directed by Christoph Stark from 2009 . It is the fourteenth episode of the Bloch television series with Dieter Pfaff in the title role of Dr. Maximilian Bloch. In addition to Ulrike Krumbiegel as Bloch's partner and her son, played by Jonathan Dümcke , the main guest stars of this episode are Florian Bartholomäi in a double role, Anke Sevenich , André Jung , Anna Fischer and Thomas Thieme .

The script is based on the conception of Peter Märthesheimer and Pea Fröhlich .

action

Almost 18-year-old Lasse Hilversum is an ambitious sportsperson. His parents take his success as a high diver for granted. He is German youth champion in high diving. From an early age, Lasse has to cope with putting his needs behind those of his twin brother Lukas, who suffers from cancer , and living in his shadow. When Lukas needs a liver transplant, his relatives take for granted that Lasse will agree to a donation. Lasse is quite willing to help, because the liver is growing back again. It is also not the first time that he has donated since his brother fell ill at the age of five, be it blood or bone marrow.

The psychotherapist and psychologist Dr. Maximilian Bloch is supposed to examine Lasse's psychological evaluation . The treating chief physician, Professor Frank Huebner, said that this was only a formality, as the donor, Lukas' twin brother, was in excellent shape in every respect. After Bloch has spoken to his young patient, he has his first doubts. Bloch wouldn't be Bloch if he were satisfied with simple answers. He feels the extreme high tension under which Lasses body and soul stand, which nobody else wants to see. At the end of his conversations and observations, Bloch comes to the conclusion that Lasse is unsuitable as a donor, knowing full well what this can mean for Lukas.

Bloch's decision leads to a serious crisis in the Hilversum family, which not only makes Lasse feel guilty, but also makes the psychologist quarrel with his own decision. The pressure exerted on him and Lasse on the one hand by the doctors, who combine their own interests with a transplant, and on the other hand by Lasse's family and their environment, confirms their own doubts, because it is about a human life. Bloch has an open conversation with the brothers in which Lasse Lukas confesses his fears. Lukas, in turn, confesses to his brother that he also carried on so that his brother doesn't have to feel that the years of torture have been in vain. At the end of the conversation it turns out that Lasse slept with the young nurse Meret Zimmermann, the woman Lukas fell in love with. Lukas flees from the conversation with Meret in order to sleep with her in turn, which she refuses under these circumstances.

Lukas decides to pretend to be a Lasse and to jump with the parachute that he gave his brother for his 18th birthday, even though he has never jumped. Lasse, who has noticed what his brother is up to, has an accident on his way to him with his moped and ends up in the hospital. Contrary to expectations, Lukas survives his first jump unscathed. Lasse decides of his own free will, but this time out of love for his brother and with Bloch's consent, to donate part of his liver to Lukas. Before going to the operating room, Lukas says to his brother that he loves him, to which Lasse replies: "I love you too."

production

Filming, production notes

Schattenkind was filmed from November 14th to December 14th, 2007 in Baden-Baden and Karlsruhe . Sebastian Hünerfeld and Sabine Tettenborn appeared as producers, Brigitte Dithard was the editor for SWR and Wolf-Dietrich Brücker for WDR .

publication

The film was broadcast for the first time in the ARD program on January 7, 2009 as part of the ARD series “FilmMittwoch im Erste ” in prime time. Previously, it was presented on September 30, 2008 in the Cinemaxx at the Hamburg Film Festival .

This film was released on DVD together with episodes 13, 15 and 16, released on June 16, 2011 by Studio Hamburg Enterprises.

reception

criticism

TV Spielfilm awarded two out of three possible points to the film for quality and excitement and the best possible rating "thumbs up" and stated: "Florian Bartholomäi, who was 21 at the time [...] mastered his difficult twin role perfectly." Conclusion: "Complex material, subtly implemented".

Rainer Tittelbach gave the film four out of six possible stars and praised tittelbach.tv on his side : “What sounds didactic is conveyed sensually, subtly and sensitively by author Silke Zertz, director Christoph Stark and main actor Max Bartholomäi in a difficult dual role. 'Shadow child' varies the deep-psychological twin motif within a family crisis and becomes a plea for talking about feelings, which is a problem. ”Not only the“ similarity of the name ”is evident in Commissioner Bella Block and psychologist Bloch, but also“ the penetrance with which both of them go their own way and express their convictions ”. The “heart” of the film are the “haunting therapy scenes”. And that, too, “the two most profound German TV series have in common: They are entertaining and stimulate reflection”.

Elmar Krekeler was deeply impressed by the film around the world . He referred to the film drama Everything We Had to Give , which is based on the novel by Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro and tells of children and young people who live together in Hailsham , a seemingly normal boarding school, and only learn that they are clones when they are around 18 years old and destined to donate their organs. "Hailsham was a boarding school for the shadow children, the living spare parts stores that were creeping out." As creepy as the great book is the "frozen family panorama" of the Hilversums, illuminated by Silke Zertz and director Stark. “Because - that is gradually breaking out of Lasse: Hailsham is not that far away. In any case, Lasse feels like a Hailshamian in his family. Like a shadow child. ”Dieter Pfaff gave Bloch“ a presence that has become very rare ”“ on television, ”wrote Krekeler. All of this is “developed in a concentrated manner” and is accompanied by images “that make you shiver”. Without Florian Bartholomäi in his double role, the film would still “not have been half as touching”. The 21-year-old Ophüls award-winner gives the two winter travelers an impressively individual double life with economical gestures, movements and looks. Finally, Krekeler wished the film “all the beautiful television awards” that Reich-Ranicki detested.

Kino.de wrote that the "great Dieter Pfaff" is "easily believed to have cracked Bloch Lasse's self-confident facade with two or three specific questions". It is “thanks” to director Christoph Stark that “the implementation of this story works so smoothly”. He leads Florian Bartholomäi to a "formidable achievement". Bartholamäi embodies the "outwardly identical, but completely different in character, twins so believably that as an uninitiated viewer, it would probably hardly occur to the idea that it was just an actor". He acts “so excellently that he has actually earned two prizes; one for each role ”. Only the subplot runs “as a foreign body on the side” and seems to “only exist because you needed a seasoned actress for Bloch's partner”, who in turn “could not be fobbed off with an extra role”.

Barbara Sichtermann said in the Tagesspiegel , "the secret of the psychologist Maximilian Bloch (Dieter Pfaff)" is "an infallible sense of the truth behind the facades of compromises, constructions and lies in the protection of which his patients and the rest of the world - including [ him] himself - arrange their life ”. The “attractive” thing about the figure is that Bloch knows the people, although he actually doesn't want to, but that's just how it is, “his intuition”. That is what makes "the interesting thing about this Bloch character" and explains "his long TV life". “Like most of them, this Bloch episode shines into a delicate interpersonal situation, with a lot of sensitivity and a sense for moral border crossings [...]. Doesn't a healthy person, especially an 18-year-old, have the right to enjoy a strong, intact body? "

The film service page read: “Actually excellent (TV series) drama that sensitively approaches the complex topic. - From 14. "

Award

2009: German television award to Florian Bartholomäi in the category "Best Actor in a Supporting Role"
Sabine Tettenborn and Sebastian Hünerfeld were nominated for the producer award for German television productions at the Hamburg Film Festival .