The Christmas War

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TV movie
Original title The Christmas War
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2013
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Oliver Dommenget
script Matthias Dinter ,
Martin Ritzenhoff
production Michael Souvignier ,
Dominik Frankowski
music Karim Sebastian Elias
camera Dietmar Koelzer
cut Ingo Recker
occupation

The Christmas War is a German television film by director Oliver Dommenget from 2013. The comedy is based on a joint script by the two authors Matthias Dinter and Martin Ritzenhoff and tells of the warring Cologne families Achenbach and Wieland, between which a neighborly competition for the favor of the alleged Kita manager and Christmas fan Johannes Herder, portrayed by Oliver Pocher , breaks out when these two parents can only offer one free U3 place for one of their children.

The feature film was produced by Zeitsprung Pictures on behalf of Sat.1 . The shooting of The Christmas War took place from August to September 2013 in Cologne and the surrounding area. In other leading roles, Christoph Grunert , Suzan Anbeh , Janek Rieke , Sonsee Neu and Nathalie Lucia Hahnen appeared in front of the camera. It was first broadcast just three months later in the station's pre-Christmas program. Critics were primarily concerned about the cast of Pochers. At the Romy Awards 2014 , Dinter and Ritzenhoff were nominated in the category “Best Book TV Film”.

action

The two neighboring families Achenbach and Wieland, residents of a new housing estate in the Cologne area, have always been enemies. While car salesman August Achenbach, his spoiled wife Yvonne and their humble teenage son Gero try hard to maintain their new rich image, caretaker Thomas, his stressed housewife Kerstin and daughter Mara lead a much more unglamorous life. What unites both families are care concerns: Since Yvonne and Kerstin want to escape their domestic duties as soon as possible, both the Achenbachs and the Wielands want their two small children to have a U3 place in the only day care center still available in town.

When the new day-care center manager Johannes Herder moves into the neighborhood and reveals that only one place is still available, a bitter battle breaks out between the two families for the favor of Christmas fan Herder. What initially begins with small favors and a competition for the more impressive Christmas lights soon leads to psychological tests that Herder wants to use to test the parental qualities of the two applicant pairs. So Kerstin is forced to prove her skills as a “mother lion”, while Yvonne has to show that she can also live less privileged. Thomas is supposed to prove his manliness in a brawl , whereas August is supposed to score with honesty or to admit his affair with colleague Lina to his wife.

After it finally becomes known to both couples that Mara Wieland from Gero Achenbach, with whom she secretly has a relationship, is pregnant, despite all the circumstances, both couples decide to go on one last big undertaking and invite Herder to spend Christmas Eve with them. He brings his eccentric friend Harry with him and tries to continue testing Thomas and Kerstin with targeted provocations. But when Mara freaks out about his behavior, Herder is piqued and refuses the Wielands the U3 place for their son. For August and Yvonne, Christmas Eve then threatens to escalate through the visit of numerous unasked guests. While August tries to keep the damage within limits, Yvonne lets Herder urge her to do a favor in the bedroom.

When the fire brigade and police arrive, Herder sneaks away unnoticed and the party is broken up. The criminal investigation officer Dabrock finally reveals to the two parents that Herder is a well-known con artist who has just fooled both families into being the new daycare manager and that a free daycare place was never an issue. Gero and Mara have meanwhile made their way to the airport to run off to Las Vegas , where their child is to be born. Their parents will follow them and can convince them in time to stay in Germany.

The following year, the two families gather at the Wielands for Christmas together. Gero and Mara have interrupted their school career and have since become parents. August has again fallen out of favor with his boss and is now unemployed, while Thomas scaled back his career ambitions in favor of his wife and took over the care of their son. While exchanging the Christmas presents, Gero reveals to everyone present that he became a millionaire the day before by selling application software he had programmed himself to Google . In a final scene, Herder is disguised as the landlord of an apartment in Schwabing, sitting in a wheelchair, testing a potential tenant couple and asking them about their passion for Christmas.

background

The Christmas War was produced by Zeitsprung Pictures on behalf of Sat.1 . Michael Souvignier and Dominik Frankowski appeared as producers . The editor was Jochen Ketschau. Souvignier described the Christmas comedy as a rather "unusual genre" for his production company. The Film- und Medienstiftung NRW supported the implementation of The Christmas War with a production grant of around 75,000 euros.

The shooting took place mainly in a side street in the Hürth district of Stotzheim .

The shooting of the film began on August 26, 2013 in Cologne and the surrounding area and lasted until September 24. The main motifs in The Christmas War were mainly created in the Stotzheim district of Hürth , where two residential buildings in the “Am Abtshof” development area were rented for production and functioned as accommodation for the Achenbach and Wieland families. The production company had previously failed with its plans to shoot in a street in Pulheim . Due to summer temperatures of up to 23 degrees, the crew used cellulose snippets as snow instead. Due to the restrictions for the residents during the shoot, Zeitsprung Pictures donated 500 euros to the village community after the work was completed.

The music for the film was composed by Karim Sebastian Elias . The Christmas carols recorded during the course of the film include, among others, Neil Diamond's interpretation of “Jingle Bell Rock”, Gary Glitter's “Another Rock and Roll Christmas”, Connee Boswell's “ Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! ", Showaddywaddys " Hey Mr. Christmas "and choir versions of" Kling, Glöckchen, klingelingeling "," O you happy "and" Silent night, holy night ". You can also hear "Sweet Sixteen" by BB King , "It's All Right" by The Impressions , Rosco Gordon's "Just a Little Bit", Lowell Fulson's "Tramp", "I Need Someone (To Love Me)" by ZZ Hill , Little Richards "Golly Golly Miss Molly", Nirvana's " Smells Like Teen Spirit " and "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis Presley .

Reviews

Rainer Tittelbach from Tittelbach.tv found that The Christmas War was "not for comedy beauties" and "dramaturgically simple": "It's not funny to scream, but 90 minutes of discreet smirking are guaranteed". Anyone who does not “dig into secrets” too deeply in the production can expect “largely superficial fun, a fictionalized perfidious competition, a biting test arrangement that results in a lively arms race”. The characters are "grabbed at their weak points - and the result is a respectable type (comic) cabinet that is furnished with a large portion of malicious glee". The “strong, contrasting line-up has enough traction to keep the game going. Even if everything dissolves somewhat profanely in the end. "

Comedian Oliver Pocher received mostly negative reviews for his game.

“A comedian doesn't do a comedy yet. And certainly not Oliver Pocher ”, judged the daily newspaper reviewer Julia Neumann. The premise of the film sounds “funnier than it is” and presents all sorts of “clichés under the Christmas tree”: “It's a Romeo and Juliet imitation with Pocher as an added catalyst between two warring families”. The "black comedy" bores the viewer and lolls around "- and unfortunately there is no humor". The oversubscription is “so clumsy that it hurts. Then there are unmotivated zooms, cut off heads, lots of over-the-shoulder shots, time-lapse sequences and a lot of inappropriate music ”.

Arno Frank summed up on Spiegel Online that the film had become "a halfway funny comedy in the hands of Sat.1 [...] and that it was not due to the proven team of authors consisting of Mathias Dinter and Martin Ritzenhoff that" it wasn't a really funny comedy with perhaps even a socio-satirical twist ”- out of“ the customary pressure to consume and the forced contemplation at the festival, one or the other humorous spark can be sparked ”. The deficits lie above all with “non-actor” Pocher, who “as the sadistic director of the facility keeps the Sat.1 slap The Christmas War at mediocrity”: “In any case, it is not funny. Pocher, locked up in his naughty mask-like mannerism, is not even remotely plausible, which would be the prerequisite for comedy ”.

The Berliner Kurier judges in a similar way : “That would be a funny plot for a nasty Christmas satire that could maliciously expose all the contemplative behavior and caring fuss during Advent. And the authors Matthias Dinter and Martin Ritzenhoff have to be admitted that they sank some nice point torpedoes there. There is nothing wrong with the ensemble, the direction, the sets either, but - and this 'but' is unfortunately decisive - in casting the main role of Mr. Herder, the non-actor Oliver Pocher was chosen, "who succeeds in "To completely shatter the film". In “amateurish cynical didactics, he reads the texts, which means they remain paper and satire degenerates into clothes. You don't buy the character he embodies for a second, and so the film crumbles into a vain number show in which everyone, but above all the ensemble around him, loses ”.

success

The Christmas War celebrated its first broadcast on December 10, 2013 in prime time on Sat.1 . With 2.22 million viewers and a 7.4 percent market share, the ratings for the total audience were below the broadcaster average. In the advertising-relevant target group of 14 to 49 year olds, 1.26 million viewers tuned in; this resulted in an above-average market share of 11.0 percent.

The following year, the comedy was "movie TV Best Book" in the category for the Austrian Film and Television Award Romy nominated, lost in ceremony in April 2014 but Martin Ambrosch and his screenplay for the film Magic Mountain in turn traces of evil .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Nasty festival instead of a festival of love: shooting of the SAT.1 film "The Christmas War" (AT) with Oliver Pocher . Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  2. ↑ We went through fire and learned . DWDL.de . Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  3. ↑ The Christmas War, TV movie . CrewUnited.de. Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  4. ↑ a b c Bernd Rosenbaum: White splendor at 23 degrees . Kölnische Rundschau . Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  5. ^ Frank Klemmer: Shooting in Stotzheim with Oliver Pocher . Kölnische Rundschau . Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  6. ↑ 500 euro donation after Pocher-Dreh . Cologne city indicator . Retrieved December 23, 2018.
  7. ^ A b Rainer Tittelbach: TV film "The Christmas War" . Tittelbach.tv . Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  8. ↑ a b Arno Frank: When Sado-Santa Pocher brings the daycare voucher . Spiegel Online . Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  9. ↑ a b Fully ruined . Berlin courier . Retrieved December 22, 2018.
  10. ^ Julia Neumann: TV review . The daily newspaper . December 10, 2013. Accessed December 7, 2018.
  11. ↑ Alexander Krei: Sat.1: Pocher's "Christmas War" no high-flyer . DWDL.de . December 11, 2013. Accessed December 22, 2018.
  12. ↑ 'THE CHRISTMAS WAR' nominated for ROMY Prize . HSVerlag.de. Retrieved December 23, 2018.

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