The blue of the sky (2011)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The blue of the sky |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2011 |
| length | 99 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Hans Steinbichler |
| script |
Josephin Thayenthal , Robert Thayenthal |
| production | Uli Aselmann |
| music | Niki Reiser |
| camera | Bella halves |
| cut | Mona Bräuer |
| occupation | |
| |
Das Blaue vom Himmel is a German feature film from 2011. Directed by Hans Steinbichler , Hannelore Elsner and Juliane Köhler as well as Karoline Herfurth and David Kross play the leading roles .
The film premiered on May 30, 2011 in the Lichtburg in Essen . It was released in German cinemas on June 2, 2011.
action
The film is set in Germany and Latvia in January 1991 . At the same time, the youth of Margas in the 1930s and 1940s in Jūrmala and Riga are shown in frequent flashbacks .
Sofia and her husband live in Berlin; Sofia's mother Marga lives in a retirement home in Bonn. Just as Sofia was producing a report about the current events during the Singing Revolution in Latvia for the SFB , she received a call that her mother was admitted to the psychiatry in Wuppertal . She learns that Marga took a taxi to her former home in Wuppertal, where she got in and smashed porcelain. Sofia interrupts her work and goes to Wuppertal the next morning.
In the hospital, she is initially surprised because her mother is fixed on the bed . She has to recognize that her mother has dementia and is aggressive, and that her daughter no longer recognizes her either. Sofia takes her mother with her from the hospital and drives her to her former parents' house. The owner gives her a small photo album that shows nudes of a young woman who Sofia thinks is her mother and Sofia's father Juris as a young man. The owner found this book in the attic of the old house during renovation work. Confronted with the photos, Marga screams and bursts into tears. In the course of time it becomes more and more clear that Marga has fears and a deep longing for her husband Juris, who has passed away for years. More and more she gets lost in the past and suddenly asks for tenderness like a child. Sofia has had little contact with her mother for a long time and feels overwhelmed by the situation of having to look after her mother.
When Sofia arrives with Marga in Berlin, she discovers photos from Marga's past in Latvia in her mother's pocket. Her mother always said there were no photos from that time. The next day, her mother tore up all the photos. Sofia travels to Latvia with her mother against the wishes of her husband, who is worried about the unrest in Riga. She wants to get to know the place where Marga grew up as a Baltic German and married her husband Juris.
They go to Jurmala to see Osvalds, with whom Juris had run a photo studio. Marga recognizes this, although she has not seen him for around 50 years. From him Sofia learns the truth about Margas and her own past, which the viewer gradually learns in the flashbacks: Juris was married to Marga, but in love with Ieva, a Latvian woman. He had a relationship with her; she is the woman in the old nudes. When Marga wanted to flee to Germany from the approaching Russian troops , movers found the photo album while clearing the house; so she discovered the secret love affair. Since Juris got off the train to Germany at the last moment, Marga also stayed in Latvia. While Juris stayed with Ieva, Marga moved in with Osvalds. She was deeply hurt and wanted revenge on Ieva. To do this, she procured some leaflets that Osvalds had secretly printed to call for resistance against the Russian troops. Marga hid the leaflets in curtains and brought them to Ieva in her parents' laundry. She then denounced Ieva to the Russian occupation forces, whereupon Ieva and her mother were deported to a gulag in Siberia . Marga wanted to watch as Ieva was taken away in a train. For fear of being discovered by soldiers, she lay down under the departing train at the last second and had to listen to the screams of the prisoners.
Sofia also learns from Osvalds that Ieva and not Marga is her mother. After Ieva's deportation, Juris returned to Marga with his daughter, whom Sofia adopted as her own child. However, she did not succeed in developing maternal feelings for Sofia; at first she even tried to kill the toddler by laying it naked by the open window.
Sofia and Osvalds find Marga lightly dressed under a truck in front of Osvald's house when the outside temperature is low. She lies confused under the truck as it was under the train that took Ieva away. Sofia manages to track down Ieva in Riga after Osvalds told her that Ieva has returned to Riga after twelve years of imprisonment and is still living there today. Confused about the unexpected encounter with Sofia, who was believed to be dead, Ieva runs away. Due to the unrest in the country, Osvalds cannot call a doctor and so Marga's condition is worsening by the hour. Shortly before Marga dies, Ieva visits her. After Marga tells her that Juris loved her, Ieva, she leaves the room without a word.
When Sofia follows her after Marga's death, she finds Ieva on the beach. There Sofia shows her a photo of her son and makes it clear to Ieva that this is her grandson. Ieva smiles softly and the two look out to sea together.
criticism
“The Blue from Heaven” is a great emotional cinema in which sensitive sequences and exaggerated moments alternate. Steinbichler's family drama about fanatical love and repressed guilt is wonderfully illustrated and wonderfully played - however, his derailments in pathos and sentimentality should cause occasional frowns. "
“Steinbichler's film is always best when it focuses entirely on women and their conflicts. The scenes shot in Riga, which are the historical setting for this very private family drama, are not entirely convincing and somewhat illustrative. "
“Hannelore Elsner [...] plays the dementia patient a little too mannered to be credible in the end. Just like Niki Reiser's bombastic music, the slightly overdriven drama stands in the way of identification. Perhaps because the landscapes are more important here, the flashbacks usually work better - but this may also be due to Karoline Herfurth's undisguised play as a young Marga. In the end, the haunting landscapes remain singular, they just don't become landscapes of the soul. "
Awards
- Bavarian Film Award 2010: Producer award to Uli Aselmann
- The German Film and Media Evaluation FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the title valuable.
Web links
- Official website
- Everything under the sun in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- The blue of the sky at filmportal.de
- Everything under the sun atRotten Tomatoes(English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Das Blaue vom Himmel . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2011 (PDF; test number: 126 381 K).
- ^ Review on Filmstarts.de , accessed on May 30, 2011.
- ↑ Hannelore Elsner shines in "Das Blaue vom Himmel" , accessed on November 16, 2012.
- ↑ Julia Teichmann: Das Blaue vom Himmel film service, May 2011.