The same sky
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The same sky |
.jpg) | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German , English |
| Publishing year | 2017 |
| length | 3x 92 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 6 (part 1) FSK 12 (part 2 and 3) |
| Rod | |
| Director | Oliver Hirschbiegel |
| script | Paula Milne |
| camera | Judith Kaufmann |
| occupation | |
| |
The same sky is a three-part German television film that was broadcast on ZDF from March 27 to 30, 2017 .
Plot threads
The film tells in several storylines about fictional but exemplary situations in the divided city of Berlin in 1974.
Stasi and espionage
In the spring of 1974 the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) smuggled the 25-year-old " Romeo agent " Lars Weber into West Berlin . There he calls himself Matthias Cramer. Cramer begins a relationship with the much older British data analyst Lauren Faber. Faber, single mother of a 17-year-old son, works as a civilian employee for the British Air Force on the Teufelsberg , a US- British spy station in West Berlin that wiretaps not only the East but also the West. The Stasi hopes to get sensitive data in this way. Divorced Faber, who is hated by her son, falls in love with Cramer, who can successfully act out his feelings for her.
Ralf Müller was born in West Berlin and cooperates with the Stasi. As a command officer, he leads Lars. After Faber suffers a stroke and is hospitalized, the mission's success is jeopardized. Since, on the one hand, Faber's intelligence value has fallen considerably because her rehabilitation would take an indefinite amount of time, and, on the other hand, if she talked about her experiences, it would pose a danger to Weber's legend, Müller gains access to the hospital and murders her.
Gregor Weber, Lars' father, is the only person who knows about the mission. He believes in socialism and considers West Berlin with its prosperity to be just a seductive showcase of the West in the heart of the GDR . He works for the Stasi and recruits a. a. Unofficial employees . He tells Lars that his wife and his daughter died in a traffic accident. In fact, she lives as a Dagmar Cutter in West Berlin.
After Faber was murdered, Sabine Cutter was chosen as the new target. She lives with her birth mother and her stepfather - a US secret service officer from Teufelsberg. Cutter was a colleague of Faber. Lars Weber successfully begins a relationship with Sabine under the name Oskar Fischer - not knowing that she is his own sister.
Doping and competitive sports
Klara Weber is to be appointed to the swimming squad for the Olympic Games . Her mother Gita hopes for a better future, her father Conrad Weber suspects the dangers that lie ahead. However, coach Wulf encourages the parents of the future professional athletes to support their daughters and not to be worried also about physical changes that, as he knows, unlike the athletes and their families from the blue pills of anabolic steroid Oral-Turinabol arising , which the young athletes are given as supposed vitamins . The word doping is not used. But he is also under pressure from his superiors to be able to show Olympic champions for socialism.
When the father sees that the daughter is now hairy with masculine hair, and the older daughter tells him that Klara will no longer have a period , the family is facing an acid test. Conrad is threatened by the trainer and Gita, who knows the state apparatus behind her, asks Conrad to go along. Gita primarily hopes for material privileges . Klara herself sees swimming as an opportunity to be respected just like her successful big sister, especially by her father. Conrad finally gives in and supports Klara. She has a great swimming career ahead of her.
Longing for the West and flight from the republic
Axel Lang is a homosexual teacher. When he spoke in class about the air rising when the temperature was high and was disgraced by the school principal - the knowledge of air currents could encourage some people to flee the republic - he probably wasn't even thinking about escaping by air. His colleague Conrad Weber, who was benevolent in himself, then reproached him for “swimming out of the stream”. The director's humiliation, an inner detachment from socialism and an unhappy love for a gay Brit arouse in him the desire to flee the GDR . With the help of his British friend, Axel begins to think about the construction of a hang glider .
Tobias Preuss, also a gay friend of Axels, is an insecure outsider. His obese appearance is probably due to his lack of self-control, especially with regard to food. Tobias is asked to help build an escape tunnel under the Berlin Wall . After he was excluded from the group of tunnel builders, the Stasi arrested him, but they did not know anything about his involvement in the tunnel construction - or pretended to know. Preuss is supposed to provide the Stasi with information about his father, which he initially refuses.
The simple cells in the Stasi remand prison in Hohenschönhausen have a demoralizing effect. For example, the light is on 24 hours a day, there is no window to the outside or there is no adequate ventilation, the guards on duty give orders through a door slot. After he was worn down by this liability, Preuss finally told about the tunnel work in an interrogation, but pretended not to know the names of those involved. The owner of the bakery from which the tunnel was dug is also taken to the pre-trial detention center. Preuss, however, is released because of his cooperation and is now collecting information about his father.
Others
The characters in the individual storylines are loosely connected to one another. So is Klara's father, Conrad Weber, the brother of Lars' father Gregor; Axel Lang a colleague of Conrad and Tobias Preuss one of Axel's friends from the gay bar.
background
The film was shot in Prague from August 24th to December 6th, 2015 . On February 16, 2017, UFA Fiction presented the television film at the 67th Berlinale as part of the Berlinale Special Series .
reception
Reviews
Frank Junghänel at the Berliner Zeitung found few words of praise and wrote: “The starting position of the three-part 'The Same Heaven' initially promises a lot. Espionage, love, betrayal, cheating, sex. And that against the backdrop of German-German history. ”But“ It's depressing how little the filmmakers […] make of this template. ”“ The mini-series, crammed with staged set pieces from the Cold War arsenal, is a dramatic setback in terms of handling of television with the division of Germany. "
"The film is a very German project with sleepy images, expectable music and uninspired dialogues: even when it comes to freedom versus socialism , nothing but platitudes ."
"[...] at first you might feel a bit instructed, but director Oliver Hirschbiegel again shows an excellent feeling for speed, entertainment and escalation, which does not have to be a simplification. [...] The German mini-series is alive and well, who would have expected that a few years ago. "
Audience ratings
The broadcast of the first part of The Same Sky on March 27, 2017 was seen by 4.68 million viewers in Germany and achieved a market share of 15.0% for ZDF. The second part was seen by 4.11 million viewers and had a market share of 13.5%. The third part was finally able to reach an audience of 4.08 million and a 13.2% market share.
Trivia
In the credits of the first part you can hear The Last Battle We Win from 1972 by Ton Steine Scherben , in the credits of the second part You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet (1974) by Bachman-Turner Overdrive .
At the end of Part 1, when Sabine is getting ready to go out (1:20), you can see Peter Maffay's LP “Ich will Leben”, which was only released in 1982.
Web links
- The same sky in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The same sky. ZDF , accessed on March 29, 2017 (official website for the film).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for The Same Sky (Part 1) . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF).
- ↑ Release certificate for The Same Sky (Part 2) . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF).
- ↑ Release certificate for The Same Sky (Part 3) . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF).
- ↑ The same sky with crew united
- ^ Carolin Ströbele: Germany, a multi-part. In: Culture. Zeit Online , February 21, 2017, accessed March 20, 2017 .
- ↑ "The same sky" fails all along the line - Source: http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/26259798 © 2017 at berliner-zeitung.de, accessed on May 7, 2017.
- ↑ Oliver Junge: I look you straight in the eye, little one! "The Same Heaven" in America. In: Feuilleton. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 26, 2017, accessed on March 27, 2017 .
- ^ Judith von Sternburg: Make eye contact. In: TV review. Frankfurter Rundschau, March 27, 2013, accessed on March 27, 2017 .
- ↑ Quota meter first part
- ↑ Quota meter second part
- ↑ Quota meter, third part