The Stranger (2010)

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Movie
Original title The stranger
Country of production Germany
original language German , Turkish
Publishing year 2010
length 119 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Feo Aladağ
script Feo Aladağ
production Feo Aladağ
Züli Aladağ
music Max Richter
Stéphane Moucha
camera Judith Kaufmann
cut Andrea Mertens
occupation

The Stranger is a 2010 drama film directed by Feo Aladağ with Sibel Kekilli in the title role. The film celebrated its world premiere on February 13, 2010 as part of the Berlin International Film Festival and subsequently received international awards.

The film opened in March 2010 at Majestic Filmverleih . The foreigner was the German candidate in the running for an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film , but did not make it onto the shortlist. "The film deals in a very dramatic and subtle way with the struggle of a young German-Turkish mother for self-determination in two value systems," said the jury. In doing so, he takes an inner, intimate perspective.

action

Umay, who was born in Berlin, left her husband Kemal in Istanbul at the age of 25 in order to lead a non-violent life in Germany with her little son Cem. Pregnant with a second child, Umay decides to have an abortion . She assumes that her family living there will support her. At first the family is delighted with their visit. But the family, arrested by traditional conventions, regards their flight to Germany as a shame. Umay resists the request to return to her husband and accepts a job in a restaurant.

Umay's father Kader phoned Kemal, but Kemal does not want the “German whore” back, but his son Cem does. By chance she learns of the family's plan to send Cem to Istanbul without her. She decides to flee. Since the door to the apartment is locked, Umay calls the police and finds accommodation with Cem in a women's shelter . In this way, Umay creates an independent life for herself and her child, independent of the family.

After her older brother learns that she lives in a women's shelter, she moves into quarters with her friend Atife. Umay falls in love with her colleague Stipe and moves into her own apartment. Besides, she tries to catch up on her school leaving certificate.

They put the family in a difficult position. Umay's brothers hear derogatory remarks from other young Turks. The engagement of the younger sister Rana is dissolved because Umay's family is being discussed in the Turkish community. Rana is appalled that she is pregnant. The family saves the marriage by increasing the bride price. Out of the desire to be present at the important family event, Umay appears at the wedding and is thrown out.

Umay continues to try unsuccessfully to contact her parents. Her employer Gül sympathizes with her and tries to mediate between her and her parents, but to no avail. Her father, who has a heart condition, turns her away and looks after Umay through the window. He sees her with her new friend, Stipe. He thinks that she is once again acting against traditional ways of life and that the reconciliation with her husband Kemal is therefore even further afield.

Later the family tries to kidnap Cem, which Umay can thwart at the last moment. Finally, the father talks to his sons - possibly about the last resort to restore the family's honor by killing Umay. But internally, torn apart from his situation, he suffers a heart attack. At the bedside he asks Umay for forgiveness and then tells her to leave.

When Umay leaves the hospital and walks down a street with Cem, her younger brother Acar shows up with her, who points a gun at her. You look in the face, he drops the gun and runs away. Umay picks up her son. Her older brother Mehmet appears behind Umay with a knife and stabs. Because Umay turns to Mehmet at this moment, the knife hits Cem, who dies from it.

About the work

On the set of "Die Fremde"

The film funding of the federal government selected the film project Die Fremde 2007 for the highest grant amount of 250,000 euros.

Aladag came across the subject while researching an Amnesty International campaign against violence against women. Aladag was inspired by well-known honor killings, including that of Hatun Sürücü , which is very similar to the plot of the film.

The director described the fact that Umay, instead of staying away from her family, shows up at her sister's wedding as "totally unreasonable". When shooting this scene in a hall in Neukölln it was very hot, and the 300 extras wanted to go home. Kekili's speech then touched many of them in such a way that they spontaneously held out handkerchiefs to her.

Filming was completed in October 2008.

criticism

The German-language criticism met Sibel Kekilli's acting performance with appreciation. The "wonderfully played" film brings the return of a Kekilli who has matured as an actress. According to Gegen die Wand in German film, she rarely got, and if so, only unworthy roles. In the second major role of her life, she plays “this great stranger in German film like no other”, “convincing and rousing” or “overwhelming”. The work is a "powerful melodrama", "exciting and grueling", its narrative style "direct and energetic".

Some of the critics considered it open whether the film could contribute to the debate about honor killings in Turkish families in Germany, but it has the potential to do so. In view of this debate, a feature film was "overdue". It shows a world of "integrated" Turks without Islamists or veils, without prejudice and without clichés. Contrary to the danger of clichés and stifling political correctness, the film shows the turmoil of the characters, especially of the father, only the older brother turned out to be "one-dimensional". "Despite all the social explosiveness, above all she succeeded in creating a disturbing, astonishingly differentiated, precisely narrated drama that avoids simple accusations," said world critic Thomas Abeltshauser. The end of the film is suitable to convince "even the last of the yesterday".

Spiegel critic Christian Buß sawa new edition by Effi Briest in Die Fremde , because the family shown was breaking up under pressure from outside. The characters, including the perpetrators, are subject to inevitability. Aladağ cleverly worked out the “perfidious paradox of the principle of honor killing”. Matthias Dell from epd Film acknowledged that the director wanted to avoid the clichés with which the topic of honor killing was dealt with in the German media, but criticized the fact that she opposed the image of the oppressed Turkish woman with another cliché: a "vague [s ] Feeling of happiness, as you know it from advertising. ”So they fail because the scenes with the German man seemed banal, while the older, tough brother lacks the feeling and you don't notice any conflict. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung noted a small weakness of the film in the fact that "in the effort to be politically correct, the comprehensibility of the incomprehensible [...] sometimes suffers a little". For Alexandra Seitz von Ray , the drama is thematically overloaded and the material is “arranged like a colportage”.

Awards

  • German Film Prize 2010 : Prize for Sibel Kekilli for Best Actress and Film Prize in bronze for the film. Nominations for Best Director and Best Screenplay (both Feo Aladağ), Best Supporting Actor (Settar Tanriögen) and Best Editing (Andrea Mertens).
  • At the 2010 German Film Critics' Prize , Die Fremde won in the categories of Best Film, Best Feature Film Debut and Best Screenplay (Feo Aladağ), Best Actress (Sibel Kekilli), Best Cinematography (Judith Kaufmann), Best Editing (Andrea Mertens) and Best Music ( Max Richter and Stéphane Moucha).
  • The film was the German entry in the running for the Oscar for the best non-English language film in 2011.
  • The German film and media rating awarded the film the rating “particularly valuable”.
  • 2010: Berlin International Film Festival - Europa Cinemas Label for Die Fremde
  • 2010: Tribeca Film Festival - Best Film for The Stranger
  • 2010: Lux-Film Award of the European Parliament for Best European Film for Die Fremde
  • 2010: New Faces Award for Best Debut Film for Die Fremde
  • 2010: Créteil Womens Film Festival - Audience Award - Best Film for Die Fremde
  • 2010: Church Film Festival Recklinghausen - Best Film for Die Fremde
  • 2010: Calgary International Film Festival - Best International Feature Film for Die Fremde
  • 2010: Flanders International Film Festival - Audience Award - Best Film for Die Fremde
  • 2010: Panorama of European Cinema - Best Film for Die Fremde
  • 2010: São Paulo International Film Festival - Best Film for The Stranger
  • 2010: Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival - Best Film for The Stranger
  • 2010: International Film Festival Marrakech - Best Performance for the Entire Cast Award for Die Fremde
  • 2010: Victoria Film Festival - Best Film for Die Fremde
  • 2011: DIVA - German Entertainment Prize in the Best Director category for Die Fremde
  • 2011: Premiers Plans Film Festival - Audience Award
  • 2011: The Golden Onion Esslingen in the Best Debut category for Die Fremde
  • 2011: German Director Award Metropolis in the category Best Director of Newcomer Film for Die Fremde
  • 2011: Kazan International festival of muslim cinema - Special Award
  • 2011: Erasmus EuroMedia Awards - Medal of excellence for fictional production , Seal of Quality
  • 2011: Prix CinéFemme - Grand Prix for Die Fremde
  • 2011: Bangalore International Film Festival - Best Director for The Stranger
  • 2012: Panazorean International Film Festival - Grand Prize for The Stranger

literature

conversations

  • With Feo Aladağ in the taz of February 15, 2010, p. 26: " I did not want to stigmatize "
  • With Sibel Kekilli in Ray , No. 3/2010, pp. 90–94: I am a German actress with a Turkish background

Review mirror

positive

Rather positive

Mixed

  • Ray , No. 3/2010, p. 54, by Alexandra Seitz: Die Fremde

Rather negative

  • epd film no. 3/2010, p. 47, by Matthias Dell: Die Fremde

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German Oscar Hope: In the Land of Strangers in Spiegel Online from October 5, 2010
  2. ↑ Academy Awards preselection: "Die Fremde" is a German Oscar candidate on Kino.de
  3. ↑ a b c d e Christian Buß : horror, without any veil . In: Spiegel Online , March 10, 2010
  4. ↑ http://www.tagesspiegel.de/kultur/Filmfoerderung-Bund;art117,1856605
  5. ↑ a b c d e Thomas Abeltshauser: Sibel Kekilli's comeback . In: Die Welt , February 15, 2010, p. 25
  6. ↑ Ines Kappert: I didn't want to stigmatize. In: taz . Archived from the original on November 6, 2017 ; accessed on November 6, 2017 .
  7. ↑ a b c Heiko Rosner: The Stranger . In: Cinema No. 3/2010, p. 54
  8. ↑ a b c d e Julia Teichmann: The foreigner . In: film-dienst No. 5/2010, p. 24
  9. ↑ a b c G. Krebs: The Stranger . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , July 8, 2010, p. 53
  10. ↑ a b c Alexandra Seitz: The foreigner . In: Ray , No. 3/2010, p. 54
  11. ^ Matthias Dell: The Stranger . In: epd Film No. 3/2010, p. 47
  12. ↑ FBW press release of the German Film and Media Assessment