The end of the beginning

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Movie
Original title The end of the beginning
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1981
length 95 minutes
Rod
Director Helmut Christian Görlitz
script Helmut Christian Görlitz
production Ottokar Runze and Christoph Holch in cooperation with
the ZDF
music Fat Cat Music
camera Henning Gaertner
cut Inge Behrens
Geeske Appeal
Jeannette Menzel
occupation

The end of the beginning is a movie from 1981 by Helmut Christian Görlitz about home education in the facilities of the Diakonie Freistatt and the forced labor in the moor in Freistatt based on the autobiographical novel driven hunt by Michael Holzner.

content

The 14-year-old Benjamin Holberg has once again fled a reform home. But this time, too, he is found and sent to another home. The boys housed there immediately put “the newcomer” under pressure and assign him tasks such as cleaning toilets and the like. When asked, they help by using physical violence against Ben. When Ben talks to another boy named Manfred and tells him that he wants to run away again, he says that he cannot escape the police in the long run because they are going to hunt him down. This does not prevent the two boys from daring to escape from the home again, which fails and ends with a punishment. The boys are condemned to work in the so-called "Fuchsbau", where Ben meets Benno. Home manager Wälzer assigns the boys to work such as hauling coal or helping on the farm. There are also fights between the young people that don't always go off lightly, including brawls with boys who do not belong to the home.

When Ben met Andrea while on a job in a girls' home, he was very impressed by her friendly manner. They arranged to go on a trip to the lake. Andrea tells him her sad story. As they say goodbye, they hug. Some time later, Tome calls Ben over and tells him that he will be fired in a few days because his mother has found him an apprenticeship as a locksmith. Ben's feelings on this announcement are mixed. When the boys play a prank on their master, he blames Ben alone and shows his true colors by revealing what he really thinks of boys who have come out of the home. Ben physically defends himself and then cracks a machine. With the looted money he buys a ticket to Bielefeld. On the train, the conductor explains to him that his card is only valid as far as Gütersloh and that he has to redeem it. However, Ben has no money and pushes the officer to escape. He then ends up in the home again, where the director of the home confronts him with serious accusations.

When the boys have to do chores in the girls' home again, Ben sees Andrea again and they kiss for the first time. When they meet again, Ben tells Andrea that he just has to leave the home to have a chance in life. She then promises to wait for him. But even this outbreak is short-lived. This time Ben is moved to the “ Moorlager Freistatt im Wietingsmoor ” home. Here, too, the boys are drilled, punished, humiliated and harassed with unnecessary regulations and abused as cheap labor who have to cut peat in a piece . Another attempt by Ben to escape ends with the fact that he is terribly beaten up by the other boys in the home with the consent of Brother Elias. After Ben is more or less restored, he flees again on a work assignment in the moor. When he threatens to sink, he succeeds with extreme willpower to free himself from the danger. He makes his way to Andrea. Together with her he continues his escape. When police officers want to see their papers in a parking lot, Ben piles up again.

Years later, Ben is now 28, and he is hit by a shot that a police officer fired in the air on his last escape. Before that was the "career of a high-profile criminal," as a newspaper later wrote about him. "Reforming homes, escape attempts, juvenile detention center, breakout, finally jail, then release, burglaries, pre-trial detention, breakout, prison, parole, various jobs, robbery, arrest, re-imprisonment, two breakout attempts, two suicide attempts." Besides this criminal biography, Ben has meanwhile a learned profession and a technical diploma. He is currently studying social pedagogy in Hamburg. This film is based on his first autobiographical novel.

Production, publication

The originally intended title for the film was Little Tree You Can (Not) Bend . The film was shot by Ottokar Runze Filmproduktion in the early summer of 1981 in the Bremen area on behalf of ZDF . The film received funding from the Berlin Film Fund .

It was first broadcast on October 30, 1981 in the cinema and on January 11, 1984 on television in the ZDF program.

criticism

Die Zeit wrote that the viewer was "deprived of any possibility of their own reflection" because the "boy's thoughts were spoken off-screen". “The lack of fantasy in the picture should be overcome by the intensity of the language. One could imagine a radio play in this way while watching the socio-pedagogically rousing impetus of a home boy's career as a criminal. And the metaphorical reference to the young trees in a nursery that have to be supported if they are to grow, [I] miss something television-like right at the beginning of this film: the switch-off button. "

Der Spiegel described Helmut Christian Görlitz's first film in 1984 as an “indictment against conventional welfare education ”.

The lexicon of international films wrote of the “life of a foster child whose irrepressible desire for freedom repeatedly urges people to try to escape” and whose “criminal career has its origins in the methods of the educational institutions”. It continued: “Based on an autobiographical novel with good actors. A partisan film that makes people think about educational methods and tries to encourage people. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz J. Raddatz: Guiltless? Questions about a lived crime novel
    In: Zeit Online , February 9, 1979. Retrieved on August 23, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b c The end of the beginning In: Zeit Online , December 3, 1982, No. 49/1982.
  3. ↑ Diakonie - Fürsorgehölle Anstalt Freistatt in Wietingsmoor at former-heimkinder-tatsachen-com
  4. ↑ a b The end of the beginning In: Der Spiegel , January 9, 1984, No. 2/1984. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
  5. ↑ Manuela Reichart: Film tips "The end of the beginning" In: Die Zeit , November 27, 1981, No. 49/1981. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
  6. ↑ The end of the beginning. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 23, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used