The secret life of words

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Movie
German title The secret life of words
Original title La vida secreta de las palabras
Country of production Spain
original language English
Publishing year 2005
length 111 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
JMK 12
Rod
Director Isabel Coixet
script Isabel Coixet
production Esther García Rodríguez
music Jaume Roures
camera Jean-Claude Larrieu
cut Irene Blecua
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
The sea in me

Successor  →
Volver - Return

The Secret Life of Words is a Spanish feature film by Isabel Coixet in English from 2005, which rolls up the emotional and physical injuries of a woman and a man who eventually find each other.

action

Hanna has been working in a factory in Northern Ireland for four years - no vacation, no sick days, never late. Finally, her boss sends her on vacation for a month. However, she does not go into the sun as suggested, but to the English North Sea coast . There the lonely, shy woman witnesses a phone call. A nurse is wanted for a seriously injured person on an oil rig . She answers and indicates that she is a trained nurse.

Josef had an accident in an explosion on an oil rig. He has severe burns, broken bones and is temporarily blind . The oil rig had to cease operations after the accident. The workers get bored without their work in the loneliness in the middle of the sea and pass the time. The chef Simon prepares a dish from a different country every day and listens to the appropriate music. Josef tries to get to know Hanna better. But it doesn't open up to him. Instead she learns more and more from the life of Joseph, whose greatest fear is the water. He reveals to her that he cannot swim, which he has kept a secret until now. The lonely Dimitri, the boss of the crew, tells Hanna how the accident came about. Josef's best friend lost his life in the explosion. However, it was not an accident because the friend had thrown himself into the flames and committed suicide. Josef tried to save him. Hanna learns from Josef that the friendship between the two men was not unbroken, because Josef had cheated on his friend with his wife and told him about it.

Hanna trusts Josef more and more. Shortly before this is to be transported to a hospital on the mainland, she lets him in on her story. She is a war refugee from the Bosnian war . When the war broke out, she returned to her hometown with a friend from the sister school in Dubrovnik , where she was raped and brutally mistreated by soldiers. Her friend was murdered along with other women. She also tells of a mother who was forced to kill her child. These experiences weigh heavily on the young woman, and Joseph is the first man to find out about them.

When Josef is flown to the mainland and admitted to hospital, Hanna separates from him and returns to her work. Joseph's healing is positive and he is completely healthy. His eyesight also returns. When he has recovered, he is given Hanna's backpack from the hospital, which was thought to be his. In it he finds letters from Hanna's psychologist Inge Genefke and Hanna's special soap. Josef sets out to visit Hanna, whom he had never seen because of his blindness. He first meets with Inge Genefke at the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) in Copenhagen, but does not learn from her any further details about Hanna's past. She advises him to leave Hanna alone, since her fate is too difficult and his request too romantic. Josef visits Hannah anyway and suggests that they go out together. She refuses because a life with her could end in a sea of ​​tears in which they would both perish. Josef replies that he will learn to swim, can finally take her in his arms and start a new life with her.

In the final scene the audience learns that the two now have two children. This is reported by a voice from the off, which also indicates that she is also a (deceased) daughter of Hanna. The extent to which this relates to Hanna's reported story is not discussed.

Reviews

  • film-dienst : Softly developed drama about two traumatized people that tells of guilt, hurt and love in a multilayered manner.
  • epd film: an unusual and intense drama, character study and love story at the same time.

Awards

  • Goya 2006: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Production
  • Lina Mangiacapre Award at the Venice Film Festival 2005 for Isabel Coixet

Dubbing

The film was set to music by Miroslav Srnka based on a libretto by Tom Holloway as chamber opera Make No Noise . The opera premiered in July 2011 at the Munich Opera Festival and was re-staged at the Bregenz Festival in August 2016 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Age rating for The Secret Life of Words . Youth Media Commission .
  2. ↑ The Secret Life of Words. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used