The Dream (2006)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The dream |
| Original title | Drømmen |
| Country of production | Denmark |
| original language | Danish |
| Publishing year | 2006 |
| length | 109 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 6 JMK 10 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Niels Arden Oplev |
| script | Niels Arden Oplev, Steen Bille |
| production | Sisse Graum Jørgensen |
| music | Jacob Groth |
| camera | Lars Vestergaard |
| cut | Søren B. Ebbe |
| occupation | |
| |
The Dream is a Danish drama movie from 2006 . Directed by Niels Arden Oplev , who also wrote the script with Steen Bille . The film won several awards in 2006 and 2007. a. in Copenhagen the Robert Film Prize for the best Danish feature film , the best director and the best screenplay , in Berlin the Transparent Bear for the best feature film. Most of the film was shot on the island of Ærø . The text in the end credits "filmen he baseret på virkelige hændelser" translates as "The film is based on real events".
action
The film goes back to 1969. It's summer and the children are on vacation. Frits, a happy about twelve year old boy, lives with his parents and two younger sisters on a farm on the outskirts of a village somewhere in Denmark. The boy witnesses how his father suddenly suffers a crisis and has to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital. In order to make the loss of their father easier for the children, the mother buys the family's first television, which Frits uses to find out about the murder of Martin Luther King . A short time later, Frits is in the sixth grade of a new school that has been run for 25 years by a director who calls himself a “general”. His demeanor when he teaches the children is accordingly. He wants to "train" the children until the new teacher arrives and does not shy away from corporal punishment. Then the new teacher comes to the school who is the opposite of the "general"; he treats the children like full people, even offers them to address him as Freddie .
A friendship develops between Frits and his classmate Iben, which shows the first gentle touches of love. Soon after, Frits is persuaded by his classmates to look through a crack into the girls' changing room in the gym. In his naivety he does not notice that he is being lured into a trap and unexpectedly ends up among the screaming girls who shower him off as a revenge. Frits flees completely soaked and runs straight into the arms of the "General". Under the enthusiastic calls of the children present, he is pulled across the corridor by the director by the ear. The teacher Freddie Svale takes the bleeding boy to the school doctor and he finds that the ear has been torn off in two places and needs to be sewn. The mother, who works as his assistant, gets into an argument a little later with her husband, who has just returned home. While she sees the difficulties that the boy and herself may face as employees of the school, he has his son's defense in mind but is unable to act. The mother becomes active, but has to accept a rebuff from the school director and also receives no support from the police, although punishment is officially prohibited in schools.
Teacher Freddie shows the children in music lessons with blues and the use of electric guitars , drums and percussion previously completely unknown sides of music. The children's apparent enjoyment is short-lived. Freddie is quoted as the director, who “doesn't want to hear any more Negro music” and doesn't fail to remind him that his probationary period has not yet expired. A friendly relationship develops between teacher Freddie and Frits and during a visit to the teacher's apartment, Frits discovers many similarities. When asked to use Freddie's record collection, Frits only chooses one, namely the one with the world-famous speech of his idol Martin Luther King: I have a dream . Freddie is asked directly by Frits' father: "If it were her son, what would you do?" His advice to call the school board for clarification is also accepted by the mother. When Director Svendsen learns that a complaint has been filed against him with the school board, he submits to the teaching staff his intention to give the boy "special lessons". Except for the teacher Freddie, only the English teacher is willing to put in a good word for Frits, the rest are silent. The mother, who sees her premonitions confirmed, reproaches her husband. But when he gets a book leaked from teacher Freddie, which opens up the possibility of defending himself against the "special lessons", she is back on his side. After Frits only needs to attend regular lessons, the school doctor uses a flimsy argument to inform his mother that her work as a school nurse has ended immediately.
At a school event to which all parents are invited, everything runs “general”, from the march in with the Dannebrog to jagged sporting performances. The principal is visibly pleased until teacher Freddie surprisingly announces an additional contribution from the students. With the song We Shall Overcome (note: this is also the title of this film in the English-language version), the children inspire those present, just one of them. Only when he notices the standing ovations of everyone present does Director Svendsen rise with an icy face. A short time later, a vote takes place in Frits' friend Iben's apartment. Her father Erling is the spokesman for the school board, who is supposed to vote here on whether the director has to undergo a disciplinary investigation. Although Erling tries with all means to steer the vote in a position that is convenient for the director, the majority opts for his summons. The director is already devastated when Erling submits to him the perfidious plan in private to deny everything and to claim that he never touched the boy.
On the day of the examination, Erling first gave the floor to the headmaster, who claimed that Frits had arrived at school that morning bleeding. The teacher Freddie, the friend of Frits and his family, appears as the only witness, but makes a testimony that exonerates the director. The children will not be admitted as witnesses. The director now pulls the honor of Frits' father in the mud and directs the suspicion of the commission on the father with details about the admission to the psychiatric clinic. The parents leave the hall and only Frits' mother manages to put her contempt into words. Unnoticed by everyone present, Frits and Iben had been listening behind a curtain. His friend Iben, who had informed her father Erling about all the details of the incident shortly before the questioning, suddenly steps out of the curtain. All she has left for her father is a contemptuous look, she leaves his questions unanswered and leaves.
Frits' father goes back to the clinic after this incident. Teacher Freddie enters the headmaster as he is typing his positive assessment that Freddie should get for his testimony. However, Freddie does not want to continue teaching at this school and quits himself. Iben is waiting for Frits and tells him that this is their last day together because their father wants to put them in boarding school. The director, the “general”, who is clearly at the top and wants to continue where he left off, now appears again for class. The students, who were otherwise rigid with fear, now without exception refuse to obey by refusing to sing with the director at first and when they are called individually do not give him an answer. When it is Frits' turn to open his mouth, he says only one word: "Liar!". The director completely loses control and hits the boy again and again, who acknowledges every blow with the word "Liar!" The horror and crying of the children, who have to watch all this in the classroom, remains without any response. Suddenly the self-proclaimed “general” grabs his chest and stumbles out of the room, accompanied by the rhythmic clapping of the class.
A little later, Iben comes to Frits and tells him that the director died in the ambulance that had been called. All the children and teachers gather in the gym where the principal's death is officially announced. While the teachers look in embarrassment, cheers break out among the students. Freddie apologizes to Frits because Frits had the courage to resist that he didn't have himself. The children run out of the hall and hoist the flag in the school yard, which had previously been set at half mast .
Frits and his mother visit the father in the hospital. The depression did not he defeated and the news of the death of the director causes no emotion. Frits asks him to come home, but the father tells him he can't. “If you stay here, he won. Come home with me, papa! ”Says Frits and holds out his hand to him.
Subplot
- A few days before Frits is injured by the director, another boy has to go to the director because he smashed a window. The other children have no pity on him, but try to peer through the director's window to see whether the boy is crying from the director's punishment. Only Frits distances himself from the onlookers and tells them that they should be ashamed.
- At the beginning of the film, Frits was the only boy in the conservative school with a Beatles hairstyle , which the director does not like. After the left side of the head has been shaved off for the treatment on the ear, Freddie also cuts the other side bald, but Frits wants to keep his hair long in the middle, which creates a hairstyle similar to the mohawk .
- When a teacher teaches that Denmark was the first country in Europe to have abolished slavery, Frits contradicts him and explains that Denmark was only the first in Europe to stop the slave trade, but still allowed slavery on their colonies in the West Indies , where more slaves were how cattle were raised. Frits is then expelled from the class by the teacher.
- After Frits learned from Freddie that he had changed his original name from 'Gunnar' to 'Freddie', he decided to use the name 'Martin' in the future, as he believed that children would have to choose their own name because they would have him all their lives.
background
In Denmark, the film Drømmen premiered in cinemas on March 24, 2006, on November 17, 2006 it was released in English dubbing under the title We Shall Overcome in the British and on May 24, 2007 in German dubbing under the title Der Dream in German cinemas.
The age rating FSK 6 for the FRG was supplemented by the Federal Agency for Political Education and Vision Cinema with the addition: Age recommendation: 10 to 16 years or grade levels: 5th to 11th grade. Denmark and Finland found 11 years of age to be the appropriate age rating, and 12 in Great Britain and the Netherlands.
Reviews
“Niels Arden Oplev impressively draws the portrait of a repressive society with its excesses and the painful experiences of childhood, but also the small refuges and tender moments. Despite the difficult subject, this plea for self-determination is not lacking in sparkling lightness and heartfelt entertainment. A formidable acting ensemble, above all the young leading actor in his innocence, vulnerability and rebellion, round off the cinematic experience that is moving not only for adolescents, but also for adults. One of the most touching family films in a long time. "
“Director Niels Arden Oplev [...] staged a wonderful childhood memory as a mixture between comedy and drama, based on his own script. He developed a special feeling for his main character, who is also perfectly interpreted by Janus Dissing Rathke. "
"A family film precisely balanced between a realistic view of the time and a big emotional cinema about fear and oppression, moral courage and honesty, excellently staged and movingly played."
Web links
- The dream in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The dream - a lesson booklet for working with the cinema at filmernst.de (PDF, 487 KB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for The Dream . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , May 2007 (PDF; test number: 110 064 K).
- ↑ Age rating for The Dream . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ Det Danske Filminstitut : We shall overcome / Drømmen: Awards and nominations , accessed October 3, 2017 (English)
- ↑ Stefan Stiletto: The dream. In: kinofenster.de. kinofenster.de , April 25, 2007, accessed October 5, 2017 .
- ↑ The dream. In: kino.de. Retrieved October 5, 2017 .
- ↑ The dream. In: prisma.de. prisma-Verlag , accessed on October 5, 2017 .
- ↑ The dream. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 5, 2017 .