The midwife - for life and death
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The midwife - for life and death |
| Country of production |
Germany , Austria |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2010 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Dagmar Hirtz |
| script |
Peter Probst based on an idea by Monika Bittl |
| production |
Annie Brunner , Andreas Richter , Ursula Woerner Co-producer: Josef Koschier |
| music |
Gerd Baumann , Gregor Huebner |
| camera | Jo home |
| cut | Nicola Undritz |
| occupation | |
| |
Die Midwife - Auf Leben und Tod is a German-Austrian television film from 2010. It premiered at the Munich Film Festival in 2010, first broadcast on November 1, 2010 on ORF 2 and ran on May 9, 2011 as television film of the week on ZDF . In the historical film set around 1813, Brigitte Hobmeier plays the title role of a Tyrolean midwife who comes into conflict with the church and conventional medicine.
action
The widowed midwife Rosa Koelbl lived with her young sister Anna in a Tyrolean mountain village around 1813. At the same time as she was helping the Bachler farmer with the birth of the eighth child, almost against her will, the young medicus Gennaro Kauner was also visiting the pastor in the village. It quickly becomes apparent that she shares many views with the young doctor, but these are considered enlightening for the time . One of them is the idea of the doctor (and the superior medical council) of a birthing house in which women can give birth to their children in peace and under much more hygienic conditions than in the village or the slums of the city.
Shortly afterwards, Rosa learns that her sister Anna is pregnant from a young farmer, Karl Bachler, on whose farm she works as a maid. After he refuses to stand by the child and marry the young woman, Anna tries to commit suicide. Rosa and the young doctor can save her at the last moment. As a result of this event, Rosa decides to go with him and her sister to the city, where the doctor works in the birthing house set up by the university. Rosa starts working there as a midwife and trainer for young midwives. Medical students are also instructed in obstetrics there. Anna is also supposed to give birth to her child here. Rosa soon had great success with her methods, which were progressive and unconventional for the time. She connects several cases of severe childbed fever , which the women survive only thanks to the self-sacrificing care of Rosa and her pupils, with the stale holy water , the use of which the Church insists on in the womb for emergency baptisms before complicated childbirths. She also communicates these considerations to the doctor, who, albeit an atheist, does not pursue this connection further out of fear of conflicts with state and church.
In the meantime, Rosa and the medicus are getting closer together, but he insists on his priority in medical views and tasks when it comes to the treatment and support of women during childbirth. She has repeated successes.
In the case of young Martha, the doctor gives birth to a caesarean section , during which the mother dies and the child survives. Since Martha is not the first woman to die after a caesarean section by the medicus, Rosa reports the incident to the university's "Medical Council", who reports to the birthing center, and demands an autopsy . Rosa does not bring the orphan Martha to the foundling house because she is convinced that it will not survive there for even a week. She finds help from a woman whom she helped with the last birth and who takes the child in as a wet nurse in addition to her five children.
Because it was a criminal offense not to have brought the orphan to the foundling house, she fled the police and went back to her village with the heavily pregnant Anna. In her absence, her older sister has sold the inherited house there. Rosa and Anna find refuge with Rosa's older friend Kathi, from whom she learns that the Pachler farmer, Maria, whom she had helped with the birth, has since died.
In the meantime, the autopsy of Martha, who had died as a result of the caesarean section, revealed that the doctor had incorrectly measured the pelvis and that the operation was inappropriate. However, the Medical Council protects colleagues from losing their license to practice medicine .
In the village, Rosa is increasingly becoming an outsider, especially among the men whose reactionary views are also supported by the pastor, but she continues to stand up for women, for example when they are abused by their husbands.
During the parish fair , at which Rosa is "cut" by the village population because the farmer Pachler blames her for the death of his wife, the doctor comes to visit the village and confesses his medical error to her. He offers her to take her to Vienna, where he has since been called. In the middle of the conversation, Rosa Koelbl is called to her sister Anna, who is about to give birth. It is a difficult birth, the women of the village pray for the life of the child and the mother. The pastor appears and in the middle of the delivery insists on an emergency baptism. Rosa refuses at first, whereupon the pastor tries to put the medicus under pressure. Finally, Rosa speaks the baptismal proclamation, but does not administer the holy water (as an enema) through the birth canal. According to the Catholic law of the time, which was erroneously portrayed in the film, this represents a serious misconduct.
In the credits, viewers learn that she has been sentenced to three years imprisonment for child abduction and that she has also lost her license as a midwife because of the “misconduct” during the emergency baptism.
background
The story is largely based on real events from that time, albeit in different locations. The material is based on true motifs from the lives of Barbara Wiedenman (* 1695) and Katharina Hintermeier , who lived in Augsburg and Ingolstadt between 1730 and 1830 and practiced as midwives. The figure of the medicus is based on the case of the doctor Dr. U. from Ingolstadt, whose manual incapacity led to a number of injured laboring women. Another documented case is the story of Dr. Daisch, who achieved notoriety as the “angel of death” in the middle of the 18th century. At the time, the medical association had investigated the case, which resulted in 61 deaths, 22 mothers and 43 children. It was not until 1881 that the doctor Ferdinand Adolf Kehrer (1837–1914) managed the first modern Caesarean section in Germany, which mother and child survived (for a very long time).
The shooting of the almost three million euro production took place in May and June 2009 in Tyrol. They were carried out by the Munich-based Roxy Film in coproduction with the Salzburg SK Film & Fernsehproduktion, ZDF and ORF and financially supported by the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern and the TV Fund Austria . When it was first broadcast in Austria, the film had an average of 720,000 viewers and a market share of 24%; on ZDF, 4.68 million viewers meant a market share of 15.7% in Germany.
See also
- Jacob Nufer (* 15th century; † 16th century, no precise dates)
- Ferdinand Adolf Kehrer (1837–1914)
- History of Obstetrics
- Puerperal fever
- Ignaz Semmelweis (1818–1865)
criticism
Christina Hucklenbroich writes in the FAZ about an "exceptional film" about the oppression of women in the early nineteenth century. The midwife provided "pictures that will be remembered for a long time - also because the film is cast right down to the supporting roles". Brigitte Hobmeier was "outstanding" in the main role and filled the role "with her authentic and straightforward play", "as if it had been written for her."
The critic Rainer Tittelbach judges: “The heroine in The Midwife - For Life and Death is a traveler between worlds and times. Between the authorities in 1813, the church and science, Rosa Koelbl remains a stranger. The time is not yet ripe for the values this woman embodies. The film tells a story. He doesn't plot. What is told lives through the narrative. The medium is not called television viewing for nothing. Jo Heim's camera work is of a precision and an aesthetic sophistication that has not been seen for a long time. And Brigitte Hobmeier is a revelation. A face like from that time. A sensual delight - and at the same time a historical film that conveys something about its time. "
Awards
- Zoom Igualada - European Television Festival 2010: "Official Jury Awards" in the three main categories
- "Best movie"
- "Best director" to Dagmar Hirtz
- "Best script" to Peter Probst
- Austrian Adult Education TV Prize 2010 to Dagmar Hirtz, Peter Probst and Brigitte Hobmeier
- Silver Magnolia in the TV Movie category at the 17th Shanghai TV Festival 2011
- Nomination for the competitions of the TV Film Festival Baden-Baden 2011
- Nomination for the German Television Award 2011 in the category "Best Television Film"
- Nomination for the Golden Camera 2012 in the categories "Best TV Film" and "Best German Actress" (Brigitte Hobmeier)
- Star of the year of the Munich evening newspaper as "TV event 2011"
- Grimme Prize 2012 to Peter Probst, Dagmar Hirtz, Jo Heim, Brigitte Hobmeier and Rudi Coppel (production design / equipment)
Web links
- The midwife - On life and death in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The midwife - for life and death at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for The Midwife - On Life and Death . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2011 (PDF; test number: 127 011 V).
- ↑ a b Anja Helmling-Grob: Between calling and calling. The medical historical background. (No longer available online.) Second German Television, May 9, 2011, archived from the original on December 3, 2016 ; Retrieved on April 8, 2017 : "The material is based on true motives from the life of midwives Barbara Widemann (* 1695) and Katharina Behind Meier who practiced from 1730 to 1830 in Augsburg and Ingolstadt." info: The archive link is automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ ORF premiere for Brigitte Hobmeier in "The Midwife - On Life and Death". In: programm.orf.at. Österreichischer Rundfunk, November 1, 2010, archived from the original on December 16, 2014 ; accessed on December 16, 2014 .
- ↑ Eric Leimann: Brigitte Hobmeier: As from another century ( Memento from May 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), teleschau - the media service from April 15, 2011. In: Lübecker Nachrichten online, accessed on May 8, 2011.
- ↑ The Midwife - For Life and Death. In: filmportal.de . German Film Institute , accessed on September 19, 2016 .
- ↑ ORF television in 2010 ( memento of the original from February 1, 2015 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. , accessed on May 11, 2011
- ↑ Audience ratings: double victory for RTL, target group record for “The Last Bull”. Blickpunkt: Film , accessed May 11, 2011.
- ↑ The Drama of Birth. FAZ.net of May 9, 2011, accessed on May 11, 2011.
- ↑ tittelbach.tv: TV film "The Midwife - On Life and Death". Retrieved November 13, 2011.
- ↑ Awards 2010 ( Memento of the original from September 16, 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. , accessed May 8, 2011.
- ↑ TV award for "The Midwife - On Life and Death". derStandard.at, accessed on May 8, 2011 (award ceremony on May 23, 2011): "In the Frauenschicksal" Die Midwife "award, Dagmar Hirtz will be honored for the direction, Peter Probst for the script and the leading actress Brigitte Hobmeier."
- ↑ “The Gruffalo” and “The Midwife” awarded in Shanghai ( 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. dated June 14, 2011.
