The contracting boy
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The contracting boy |
| Country of production | Switzerland |
| original language | Swiss German |
| Publishing year | 2011 |
| length | 107 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Markus Imboden |
| script |
Plinio Bachmann , Jasmine Hoch (collaboration) |
| production |
Peter Reichenbach , Claudia Schröder |
| music | Ben Jeger |
| camera | Peter von Haller |
| cut | Ursula Höf |
| occupation | |
| |
Der Verdingbub is a feature film by Swiss director Markus Imboden from 2011 . The action takes place at the beginning of the 1950s and depicts the life of two contract children in the Emmental .
The film premiere took place on October 25, 2011 in Bern . It was released in theaters on November 3, 2011. With over 200,000 viewers, it was the most successful Swiss feature film since Die Herbstzeitlosen after nine weeks . In Germany, the film opened in German cinemas on October 25, 2012.
action
The 12-year-old orphan Max is hired out from a children's home by the village pastor to the farming family Bösiger in the Emmental . There he takes the place of a contracting boy who died shortly before under unexplained circumstances. Max has to work hard on the poorly productive farm. After another contract child, 15-year-old Berteli , was placed in the yard, tensions developed between the two children. Increasingly, however, Max turns to Berteli with friendly feelings.
The barley harvest is bad and the potatoes are rotting in the field. The farmer is addicted to alcohol . Max is physically abused by the farmers; he is slapped on the slightest occasion or whipped with the belt . He has to sleep in the pigsty. Only playing on his hand organ gives him recognition and gives him a zest for life.
The teacher noticed traces of physical abuse at school. She sits down at the mayor and the parish priest for Max, after which, however, his life in the peasant family is even more difficult. After hearing a tango played on a bandoneon on the radio , he is completely fascinated by Argentina .
The farmer's son Jakob also insults and beats Max. At night he breaks into Berteli's chamber and rapes her regularly. When she becomes pregnant , the farmer's wife forces her to drink a liquid that leads to a miscarriage that same night. The next morning, the girl's body is found in the yard's cesspool .
During the police investigation, the farmer's wife protests that she only wanted the best for the girl until the farmer hands the policeman the bottle with the label " castor oil " on it. He smells the bottle and says meaningfully that an investigation into the incident is necessary. Max says he saw the farmer's wife in the house that night with bloody laundry.
Max doesn't want to stay on this farm anymore. The next night he leaves. A butcher (butcher) in the village, himself a former contracting boy, gives him something to eat and listens to him playing the hand organ. The twenty francs he gives Max are enough for his trip to Basel, from where he goes on a Rhine ship to the North Sea . There he joins a ship that is supposed to take him to Argentina. In a mental conversation with Berteli, he tells her that he has to work hard on board, but will not be beaten. Everyone sits together at dinner and everyone gets the same food as the captain .
In the final scene, Max gives a concert in old age as a bandoneon player on a stage .
Reviews
«… A quiet, clear drama that takes place in the 1950s and counteracts a series of catastrophes with the relentlessness of clockwork. ... So the scenes for the viewer in this anti-homeland film - which is reminiscent of the socially critical Swiss dramas of the eighties - soon turn into a parcour of psychological punches until your heart becomes dull. "
«In dark colors, director Markus Imboden [...] describes the joylessness and poverty on the Bösiger farm. The spouses are not defamed, but it is shown how they have become so hard on the one hand through hardship and constant renunciation, but on the other hand their socialization prevents them from taking control of life and breaking the cycle of injustice, humiliation and violence . Just as Max and Berteli find themselves dependent, they are also at the mercy of each other. The farmer's men are played impressively and truly convincingly by Stefan Kurt and Katja Riemann. "
Awards
- Prix Walo 2011 in the best film production category
- Bavarian Film Award 2012: Award for young actors to Lisa Brand
- Swiss TV Award 2012 in the category: Best Film
Theater adaptation
Plinio Bachmann adapted his film script for the Stadttheater Bern with Barbara Sommer ; the world premiere of the play Verdingbub took place on October 15, 2017.
See also
Web links
- Official website
- The Verdingbub in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The contracting boy at filmportal.de (with trailer and photo gallery)
- The contracting boy at swissfilms.ch
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Der Verdingbub . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , June 2012 (PDF; test number: 133 577 K).
- ↑ The contracting boy: Over 200,000 visitors in nine weeks. January 13, 2012, accessed February 12, 2012 .
- ↑ The highest quantity of tear salt . In: NZZ Online. November 3, 2011, accessed February 12, 2012 .
- ↑ THE VERDINGBUB . Top video news. Publisher: Children's and Youth Film Center on behalf of the BMFSFJ .
- ^ Prix Walo 2012 edition with expected winners. ( Memento from June 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Schweizer Fernsehen from May 13, 2012
- ↑ Contracting boy. www.konzerttheaterbern.ch, accessed on October 16, 2017 .