City of Ember - Escape from the Dark
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | City of Ember - Escape from the Dark |
| Original title | City of Ember |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2008 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Gil Kenan |
| script | Caroline Thompson |
| production |
Gary Goetzman , Tom Hanks , Steve Shareshian |
| music | Andrew Lockington |
| camera | Xavier Pérez Grobet |
| cut |
Adam P. Scott , Zach Staenberg |
| occupation | |
| |
City of Ember is a dystopian science fiction / fantasy film directed by Gil Kenan from 2008. The screenplay for the film was written by Caroline Thompson .
action
In a gloomy future scenario, an underground city called Ember will be built to protect humanity , in which people will find protection and refuge hermetically sealed off for generations. The city's builders plan to isolate those trapped for exactly 200 years. At the same time, they leave the mayor a metal box with instructions for a future return to the surface, which, however, will be forgotten over time. In addition, a significant amount of knowledge and skills are lost forever.
After 200 years, Ember suffers from food shortages and power outages. The latter are caused by an ailing generator powered by hydropower, and the lighting is interrupted for longer and longer. The two 12-year-old main characters, the orphan Lina and the inventor's son Doon, will be assigned jobs as part of a festive ceremony after finishing school. Doon, who is very interested in the generator, is originally assigned the job of messenger, but swaps it with Lina for that of pipe worker in the hope of being able to work near the generator.
One day Lina discovers the metal box that is in the possession of her senile grandmother. The document contained therein immediately arouses their curiosity. From then on, Lina and Doon try to unravel the document, which is only available in fragments. At the same time, the situation in the city worsens after further breakdowns in the generator. Corrupt Mayor Cole does nothing to stop the impending doom of Ember and instead pursues his own interests by hoarding large amounts of food for himself in a hidden room. When he discovers the metal box at Lina and wants to get it into his possession, Lina is able to flee due to another power failure. Then Cole searches for Lina and Doon.
Doon, Lina and their little sister Poppy hide from their pursuers. Then they follow the instructions of the former builders, which they can laboriously unravel. The three finally reach the surface of the earth unharmed through an underground river, where they later experience their first sunrise. In this situation they discover the lights of Ember through a crack in the earth deep below the earth's surface. Lina and Doon send a message to their fellow citizens, which is found by Doon's father Loris.
background
The production is Kenan's real film debut and is based on the 2003 youth novel of the same name by Jeanne DuPrau , which was published in Germany under the title Lauf gegen die Dunkelheit . The literary template is the first part of a four-part book series that was continued with The People of Sparks in 2004 and The Diamond of Darkhold in 2008 , while the third part of the book series, The Prophet of Yonwood (2006), is a prequel to the first work. The historical concept has similarities to the 1909 published short story The Machine Stops ( "The machine fails") by EM Forster on.
criticism
"Lovingly designed fantasy film in a retro look with a great sense of spatial poetics and great narrative care in characterizing the characters. The joy of set design, however, comes at the expense of the dramaturgical development, which tends to neglect the journey to light. "
“'City of Ember' is an above-average entertaining adventure film with an exciting premise, whose character and story development unfortunately suffers from the short running time. Kenan does not produce as briskly as some genre colleagues, but his challenging children's book adaptation scores with much more depth thanks to its dystopian setting. "
publication
The film was released in Germany on March 26, 2010 on DVD and Blu-ray Disc .
Awards
- Nomination for Best Production Design for Jon Billington and Martin Laing
- Nomination in the category Best Costume Design for Ruth Myers
literature
- Jeanne DuPrau: Run against the dark . Munich, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 2004, ISBN 978-3-423-70883-8
Web links
- City of Ember - Dark Flight in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- City of Ember - Dark Flight at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- City of Ember in the online movie database
- Review of City of Ember - Escape from Darkness on KinderundJugendmedien.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release Certificate for City of Ember - Escape from Darkness . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2010 (PDF; test number: 121 236 V).
- ↑ Stephen Holden: Movie Review: City of Ember (2008) ( English ) In: New York Times . The New York Times Company. October 9, 2008. Retrieved April 6, 2012.
- ↑ City of Ember - Escape from the Dark. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ filmstarts.de