The expendable
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The expendable |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2009 |
| length | 114 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Andreas Arnstedt |
| script | Andreas Arnstedt |
| production | Andreas Arnstedt |
| music |
Contriva , Masha Qrella |
| camera | Patricia Lewandowska |
| cut | Sylvain Coutandin |
| occupation | |
| |
The dispensable is the film debut by Andreas Arnstedt, produced in 2009 . The social drama has won several awards at national and international festivals. The film had its cinema premiere on September 30, 2010 and was released on DVD in 2011. It is based on a true story.
action
Eleven year old Jakob grows up in a broken family. Mother Silke works at a gas station and, like Jacob's unemployed father Jürgen, is an alcoholic. Jacob's grandmother Rosemarie also drinks too much, but has her life under control to some extent. At the end of a chain of events, just before Christmas, Jakob is alone in the apartment with his father. Jürgen is dead and Jakob spends the days with his father's corpse, hoping that he will wake up, and finally covers the lifeless body with a blanket. When the stench becomes unbearable, he pushes the corpse behind the sofa and tries to dispel the smell with incense sticks. In flashbacks it becomes clear what has happened recently:
Silke and Jürgen keep arguing in front of Jakob, who absorbs part of the aggression. Both parents are less intelligent, just as Jakob already had great difficulties in the fifth grade in understanding the school material. Jürgen lets himself go, but draws hope when he gets a job in a butcher shop. He raves about the future in which the destitute family can eat steak every day. However, Jürgen quickly realizes that one of his tasks is to stick labels with a new best-before date on meat packaging. One day when he siphons off steaks and lets them roast at home, the meat turns out to be spoiled. There is a dispute in the family about this, Jürgen does not want to admit that his contribution to the food was bad. The next day he addresses the problem of “ rotten meat ” in the company and is dismissed after signing a confidentiality agreement. Jürgen is desperate because his commitment to doing the right thing wasn't rewarded. His family comforts him. However, the harmony only lasts for a short time. The alcoholic Silke steals schnapps at her job and is fired. Since she keeps having problems using the stove, she buys a new one that she can handle. She and Jakob are proud to be able to serve Jürgen a warm meal in the evening, but Jürgen reacts angrily because the old plate works and Silke is just unable to serve it. He turns on the old record and presses it to Silke's cheek to prove it. Silke suffers burns and is hospitalized. The doctors recognize their alcohol addiction and prescribe a drug addiction treatment. Silke realizes that this is her chance for a new beginning. She decides to separate from her husband and child. Jürgen is beside himself, with Silke he completely loses his hold in life. He returns home alone and tries to hang himself. Although he wants to loosen the lamp cord around his neck at the last moment, he loses his grip and strangles himself in front of his son Jakob, who has just come home and tries in vain to help him.
Since Jakob knows that his mother's decision is final, he pretends to his grandmother and his class teacher that nothing has happened. He claims that his father is on a long training course. He wants to confide in his best school friend and first great love Hannah, but doesn't know how. She finally discovers the body when she spontaneously visits Jakob. Together with her brother Sebastian she tries to find a solution to the problem, but the corpse turns out to be too heavy. Since Sebastian notes that corpses become lighter during the decomposition process, Jürgen's body continues to be stored in the apartment. The class teacher is surprised that Jakob has not yet paid the money for the upcoming school camp, but does not ask any further questions. Rosemarie is also irritated because she first gave the money to Jürgen, who, however, spent part of it on a Christmas tree and food, and the next day Jakob when he asked about it. She is also surprised that Jürgen did not talk about his training, but in the end her sympathy is not great enough to ask Jakob more closely. Jakob, in turn, eludes the family situation and spends a night outdoors in winter. Nobody is looking for him. He returns to school in the morning, where the police are already present. Jakob rushes home and meets his grandmother in the apartment. Jürgen's body has already been removed. He himself will live with his grandmother. In the voiceover, the now grown-up Jakob describes his further development - warehouse skilled worker with disabilities after an accident at work and no prospect of ever being on the winning side.
Reviews
Gabriele Michel wrote in the Badische Zeitung : “The real main character in the film is not Jacob, but his father Jürgen Weiss. And André Hennicke's unreserved game, which allows tenderness and violence, courage, nausea, booze and longing to merge seamlessly, actually gives this tattoo-armed drinker the tragedy of a modern Franz Biberkopf. Jürgen also fights and fails, time after time - to himself and to the wickedness of others, because 'cursed is the person who relies on people', as it is called at Döblin . "
Ina Hochreuther wrote for the website of the Stuttgarter Zeitung : “In nested flashbacks, the director Andreas Arnstedt shows a family with no opportunities, whose life fails due to unemployment and alcoholism. [...] The great leading actors make you forget the script, too many issues and simply drawn secondary characters. "
Wolfgang Martin Hamdorf's verdict on Deutschlandradio Kultur : “'Die Abbehrlichen' shows a family that fails due to the absurd Hartz IV bureaucracy, shows holes in the social network, prejudices and ignorance in what is actually a wealthy society. The film describes the web of lies, illusions and hopes that hold the family together until it is no longer possible, and tells all of this with human warmth, humor and local color thanks to its impressive actors [...]. "
On the Heilbronner Voice website, Anna Julia Höhr said: “What is special: Arnstedt's portrait of a family without a chance is a no-budget production with a high-quality cast: André Hennicke, Steffi Kühnert and Matthieu Carrière are in the leading roles of the international festival success see."
Awards
The German Film and Media Assessment (FBW) awarded the film in 2009 the rating “valuable”.
At the 33rd Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo 2009 The Expendables ran in the competition. The film won the award for Best Director and Best Actor (André Hennicke).
At the 15th Film Festival Turkey / Germany Nuremberg 2010 the film received the jury's advancement award and won the distribution advancement award at the Max Ophüls Film Festival 2010 (together with Bis auf's Blut - Brothers on Probation ). Leading actor Oskar Bökelmann received the Actor Award at the 2010 Los Angeles Film Awards. At the 15th International Film Festival for Children and Young Audiences Schlingel, the film received the DEFA Foundation's sponsorship award in 2010 .
In 2011 the film was nominated for the German Film Critics' Prize in the Best Feature Film Debut category.
Web links
- The Entbehrlichen in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The dispensable at filmportal.de
- Official website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for the dispensable . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2009 (PDF; test number: 120 671 K).
- ↑ Anna Julia Höhr: Andreas Arnstedt - In spite of all opposition ( Memento of the original from August 28, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Monsters and Critics dated September 21, 2010
- ↑ a b Andreas Arnstedt ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Stimme.de of September 24, 2010
- ↑ Gabriele Michel: The hidden death of a tattooed drinker , Badische Zeitung online from September 29, 2010, accessed on July 8, 2013
- ↑ Without a class trip and without a chance ( Memento from July 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), Stuttgarter Zeitung online from September 30, 2010
- ↑ Disintegration of a Family , dradio.de of September 26, 2010
- ↑ See the dispensable on fbw-filmbassy.com
- ↑ DEFA Foundation Award for “Die Entbehrlichen” , filmportal.de, October 5, 2010.
