My mother's hands

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Movie
Original title My mother's hands
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2016
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Florian Eichinger
script Florian Eichinger
production Mike Beilfuß ,
Matthias Greving ,
Cord Lappe
music André Feldhaus
camera Timo Schwarz
cut Jan Gerold
occupation
Leading actor Andreas Döhler during the filming of My Mother's Hands (2015)
Film team My mother's hands at the world premiere at the Munich Film Festival in June 2016. Second from right: director Florian Eichinger.

My mother's hands is a German feature film by director Florian Eichinger from 2016 . In it, the adult protagonist suddenly remembers the repeated sexual abuse that his mother committed against him in his childhood. Not only does he face the past himself, he confronts his entire family with it.

The film celebrated its premiere in June / July 2016 at the Munich Film Festival , where it was screened in the Neues Deutsches Kino series . There the film was awarded the New German Cinema Award twice: Florian Eichinger received the award for best director and lead actor Andreas Döhler for best acting . From the German Film and Media Review was my mother's hands with the predicate particularly valuable excellent.

content

Starting position

39-year-old Markus is married to Monika and they both have a four-year-old son, Adam. At a family celebration in honor of Markus 'father, which is linked to a boat trip, Adam goes to the toilet with Markus' mother, his grandmother Renate, and comes back with a small cut on his forehead. At a celebratory dinner, Markus' younger brother Johannes gives a speech to the father, which, however, mainly highlights the mother's role in building up the family business. Markus is very cautious in the party, gives non-binding answers to questions about his condition and only makes eye contact with his sister Sabine.

Further course

By injuring his son, Markus recalled his childhood memories for the first time, when his mother repeatedly sexually abused him. In a letter he confronts Renate about it and also tells Monika about it. Initially, she doubts that these are real events. In response to the letter, Renate gives her daughter-in-law an envelope with the words “For you!” In which there is the wristwatch that belonged to her father.

When Markus confronts his mother a little later in a café, to Markus' surprise she frankly admits everything. Cool and conspicuously distant, she offers her son to apologize if he so wishes, even if she knows that such a thing cannot be forgiven. Markus doesn't know how to react. He told Monika that the matter was settled and that his mother had died for him. But Monika doubts that this is an appropriate way of dealing with Markus' suffering.

Markus tries to find out from Adam what happened in the toilet on the boat trip. The boy does not seem disturbed, but inconsistencies cannot be finally resolved.

When Markus was passed over in the event of a possible promotion at his job, he suddenly asked completely new questions: Did his childhood experiences contribute to the fact that he was not able to approach people as openly as his preferred colleague? Do the panic attacks that Markus has always come across, for example in the subway, have their roots in the past? Markus wants to do something, he contacts several psychotherapists . These are not very helpful - time overloaded, sometimes overwhelmed, one doubts Markus' descriptions and suggests that he should consider whether he had felt a feeling of pleasure after all.

Markus' father, who initially denied everything, offers financial help. But Markus doesn't want to ease Gerhard's guilty conscience. A flashback shows how Gerhard confronted Renate, but in a ritual obliged the family to remain silent, whereupon the rumor mill in the village calmed down. At this point the connection to Johannes' speech at the beginning of the film becomes clear: Renate was indispensable for Gerhard. He tells Markus that he hadn't had sex with her at that time, "she didn't want me."

Markus wants more answers. From Greta, his mother's sister, he learns that there was also sexual violence in his mother's home : at least the grandfather sexually abused Greta and her brother, who later committed suicide. From here there is a connection to the grandfather's watch that Renate gave to Monika - an indication that Renate could also have been a victim, which her sister doubts.

The relationship between Markus and Monika falls into a crisis of trust when Monika gives his mother an ultimatum behind his back : Renate has until Christmas to call the family together to reveal their actions; if Renate doesn't do that, Monika will report her. Unlike Markus, Monika wants to put everything on the table, because since a nightmare she has been afraid that otherwise one day Markus might pass the power on to little Adam - although she knows that Markus loves his son more than anything.

Markus moves into another apartment, but visits Monika and Adam regularly and plays with his son. Even so, he feels isolated and feels that he cannot even confide in his friend Lasse completely. When he has almost completely slipped into a severe depression , he finds a competent psychotherapist through Greta who used to work with his aunt. With her he can experience his helplessness, anger and finally also sadness and bring it to the outside, whereby one or the other piece of furniture is broken.

For the first time, Markus approaches his sister Sabine and learns that Renate has also done sexual violence to her. The sibling relationship between the two was disturbed for decades because it was probably Sabine who had carried the rumors into the village at the time. A longed-for new beginning in the relationship between brother and sister now seems possible.

Although her deeds are already statute-barred , Renate actually invites the family members to a meeting in a hotel, as Monika had requested. While many think there is an inheritance matter in connection with a family property, Johannes asks his mother about the occasion shortly before the meeting. When she refuses to answer her youngest son's repeated questions, he pushes his mother violently against the wall, a vase breaks, and Renate falls into the shards. Unlike his two siblings, Johannes was apparently spared his mother's attacks as a child, but he always felt he was left out in the family.

As at the beginning, there is also a family reunion at the end of the film. Renate is sitting in the first row with his arms and hands bandaged. Markus stands in front of the group and explains that his mother is not able to speak at the moment and that he will do it for her.

Subject and title

The focus is on the taboo subject of sexual abuse by mothers of their children. The director wanted to question gender roles and break up clichés: Contrary to the classic constellation, a female figure is the perpetrator, a male the victim. The second female main character, Monika, provides essential impulses for uncovering the past.

The film title refers to the ambivalence of maternal hands: They can protect and comfort children, but they can also cause them serious and lasting injuries. The power and responsibility of parents towards their children becomes clear in the picture of the hand.

Cinematic details

The pictures are seldom accompanied by music, the film seems very calm. The script “[relies] on very sparing dialogues […] and instead often only looks. […] “There aren't many scenes in which sexual violence is shown. In these flashbacks, the child is played by the same actor as the adult Markus, "an extraordinarily successful cinematic trick". By doing without a child actor, the focus remains on the adult, who has to process his childhood experiences in the present, and voyeurism is prevented.

Position in the work of the director and in film history

After Bergfest (2008) and Nordstrand (2013), director Florian Eichinger is devoting himself a third time to the topic of domestic violence. The focus of the trilogy is not what happened, but the description of the consequences for further life. This film also questions gender roles and aims to make human complexity clear against the background of interpersonal conflicts. While researching a previous film, Florian Eichinger came across the story of a mother who had sexually abused her own child.

Echoes of Das Fest can be felt. Stefanie Zimmermann wrote in the journal Blickpunkt: Film : “A film with an emotional hardness that is reminiscent of the Danish cinema of the late 1990s.” Patrick Wellinski saw here not a copy, but a transposition into a German context with a sensitive narrative.

After Rosa von Praunheim's film Hardness , this film is the second German film in a short period of time about the taboo subject of sexual violence by a mother towards her son.

Production and sales

The shooting took place in Bremen, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. The film was made with the support of the Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Film Fund , nordmedia Fonds GmbH in Lower Saxony and Bremen and the German Film Fund . Lucia Haslauer was the editor of ZDF.

The film is managed by Media Luna New Films as a world distributor, in Germany the distribution is carried out by Farbfilm Verleih .

Awards

Participation in film festivals

criticism

My mother's hands were given the title Particularly Valuable .

The German Film and Media Review (FBW) spoke at the Jury citation for the award of the predicate particularly valuable from a "beneath the skin, successful in all respects and eminently important cinematographic work [es]" and highlighted the high quality of the underlying research out . At the Munich Film Festival , the jury of the New German Cinema Award praised Eichinger's "fine narrative style, the clever psychology of the characters and the precise acting". The reason given by the three jurors , the actor Johann von Bülow , the producer Nicole Gerhards and the filmmaker Dietrich Brüggemann , states: “A film that kept catching our breath and which, in the end, showed us a way out of hopelessness . ”Patrick Wellinski, film editor of Deutschlandfunk , also emphasized the cautious narrative style that was“ not at all about drama and taboo ”and spoke of“ impressive, adult, mature cinema ”. Harald Mühlbeyer positively emphasized the fact that viewers can fully empathize with the greatest possible psychological density, "but without being surrounded by it and thus manipulatively abused themselves". In the Hollywood reporter, Boyd van Hoeij described the way in which Eichinger suggested that preventing sexual self-determination could gradually affect entire families and biographies as one of the film's greatest strengths .

Wolfgang Höbel recognized Andreas Döhler's outstanding acting performance on Spiegel Online , but spoke of “Kummerkino” and stylistically moved the presentation of the psychotherapy sessions close to a non-fiction film adaptation .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for My Mother's Hands . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ Florian Eichinger - 2 after 1. (No longer available online.) In: radiobremen.de. September 23, 2016, archived from the original on November 21, 2016 ; accessed on November 21, 2016 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.radiobremen.de
  3. ↑ a b c Florian Eichinger in conversation with Susanne B: Film "The hands of my mother" - When abuse is no longer kept silent. In: deutschlandradiokultur.de. June 25, 2016. Retrieved July 3, 2016 .
  4. ↑ a b c Chronicle of Cruelty - ttt - title, theses, temperaments. (No longer available online.) In: daserste.de. November 20, 2016, archived from the original on November 21, 2016 ; accessed on November 21, 2016 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.daserste.de
  5. ↑ a b c d My mother's hands. Justification of the jury of the German Film and Media Assessment (FBW) for the award of the rating 'Particularly valuable'. In: fbw-filmbeval.com. Retrieved October 16, 2016 .
  6. ↑ a b My mother's hands : My mother's hands. In: kino.de. December 1, 2016, accessed July 3, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Werner Schauer, Triptychon Corporate Communicati: German Films Quarterly 2 2016 THE HANDS OF MY MOTHER. In: germanfilmsquarterly.de. Retrieved July 3, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Jessica Schwarz films family drama in Vegesack - shooting in Bremen. (No longer available online.) In: radiobremen.de. October 7, 2015, archived from the original on July 3, 2016 ; Retrieved July 3, 2016 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.radiobremen.de
  9. ↑ Stefanie Zimmermann: A wild mix. The New German Cinema series is traditionally the industry magnet at the film festival. Films like 'Oh Boy' were discovered here. In: Blickpunkt: Film , special issue, June 2015, ISSN 0947-4390, p. 18.
  10. ↑ a b Patrick Wellinski in conversation with Marietta Schwarz: Munich Film Festival - New German Cinema Award 2016. In: deutschlandradiokultur.de. July 1, 2016, accessed July 3, 2016 .
  11. ↑ a b news aktuell: Two awards for the ZDF co-production The Hands of My Mother / New German Cinema Award at the Munich Film Festival. In: finanznachrichten.de. July 2, 2016, accessed July 2, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Martin Blaney: Munich Filmfest wrap: Florian Eichinger named best director. July 4, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Gerd Mägerle: Golden beaver for the German-Serbian film "Enclave". In: schwaebische.de. November 9, 2015, accessed November 8, 2016 .
  14. ↑ Filmfest Hamburg 2016 - My mother's hands. In: filmfesthamburg.de. Retrieved October 15, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Filmfest Bremen - program. In: filmfestbremen.com. September 25, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2016 .
  16. ↑ 23rd International Film Festival Oldenburg - 14.-18. Sep 2016: The hands of my mother - Filmfest Oldenburg. (No longer available online.) In: filmfest-oldenburg.de. September 18, 2016, archived from the original on October 15, 2016 ; accessed on October 15, 2016 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.filmfest-oldenburg.de
  17. ↑ a b Tiroler Tageszeitung Online: “My Mother's Hands” in Munich named best newcomer film Tiroler Tageszeitung Online Nachrichten von Jetzt! In: tt.com. July 1, 2016, archived from the original on December 1, 2016 .;
  18. ↑ Harald Mühlbeyer: Munich Film Festival 2016 - "The hands of my mother" by Florian Eichinger. In: kino-zeit.de. June 26, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Boyd van Hoeij: 'Hands of a Mother' ('The hands of my mother'): Munich Review. In: hollywoodreporter.com. February 8, 2016, accessed on November 25, 2016 (English, original English text: The way in which Eichinger manages to suggest that a single act of deprivation can have a ripple effect across entire families and across time is insightful and one of the film's strongest assets.).
  20. ↑ Wolfgang Höbel: Munich Film Festival: Where's the German Easiness? In: Spiegel Online . June 29, 2016. Retrieved July 3, 2016 .