The missing
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The missing |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2012 |
| length | 86 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jan Speckenbach |
| script | Jan Speckenbach Melanie Rohde |
| production |
Anke Hartwig Sol Bondy |
| music | Matthias Petsche |
| camera | Jenny Lou Bricks |
| cut | Wiebke Grundler |
| occupation | |
| |
Die Vermissten is a German feature film with dystopian features from 2012. It was released in theaters on May 10, 2012.
action
The nuclear power plant engineer Lothar from Hanover learns from his ex-wife Sylvia that their 14-year-old daughter Martha has disappeared. He has not had contact with her or his ex-wife for years.
Lothar's relationship with his current partner becomes strained when she learns that he has kept his daughter from her. Lothar goes in search of Martha and discovers that she belonged to a group of children and young people called "rats of the air" whose traces lead to rural areas. During his first explorations in the city, he had already met the 12-year-old girl Lou, who is also a member of the group and initially only roamed around occasionally. Her parents and the parents of a permanently disappeared boy encounter his persistent explorations with indifference and resentment. He now meets signs that many more children and young people have run away from home, the police are no longer in control and some escaped children have been taken to reception camps, but have escaped again and again.
When three stray children get into his car in a field at night, he discovers that one of the children is Martha. The next morning the children disappeared and stole everything that could be used for their tramp life, but left his ID behind. Lothar now wanders across the country without his car stuck in the mud and suffers from hunger, cold, moisture and dirt. He is already stealing food, but a helpful bus driver can save himself to a city and withdraw money from a bank. Back in the country, he meets Lou again and accompanies her. In a rural inn he meets a mother who is also looking for her child, but does not reveal herself to her. A vigilante group of older men roams a deserted-looking, rural residential area in which there are many stray children who immediately hide from the vigilante group. When the vigilante group tries to control Lothar and Lou, they fight back, whereupon Lou is seriously injured by the vigilante group. Since no one helps her, she dies from her injuries. The children come out again and move on. Lothar sees his daughter again among the children and remains distraught. The film breaks off.
Recurring elements
Pigeons, also known as “rats of the air”, appear repeatedly in the film. Lothar catches a carrier pigeon and takes a piece of paper from it; later he looks in vain for a message from a dead pigeon.
Panes of glass are another recurring symbol of the film. Lothar often looks at what's going on through panes of glass. These are penetrated several times by stone throwing. At the beginning of the film, a dove flies against a pane of glass in front of which Lothar is standing.
criticism
Ralf Schenk writes in the Berliner Zeitung : “[...] if there is a work in the Berlinale section Perspektive Deutsches Kino that is a promise of the future, it is above all this. [...] Almost without a word, the film roams the surrealistic realm of a universe in which the children have separated from the adults and the fathers, united in vigilante groups, lie in wait for them and kill them as if they weren't already through traditional life almost killed. There are some things that can be criticized for these 'missing people'. For example, that the film narrows the division of the world into rich and poor and the resulting clashes into a conflict between parents and children. [... Jan Speckenbach] proves his art of advancing towards an unsettling vision of society, in a cool, clear form that stylistically enriches young German cinema and enlivens it with atmosphere. "
Kino.de saw a “stylized, minimalist and haunting social parable”.
Awards
The Missing was nominated in 2012 for the European Film Award in the category “Best First Feature”.
Web links
- Website of the film
- Missing in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The fairy tale of lost happiness. Berliner Zeitung, February 8, 2012, accessed on May 12, 2012 .
- ^ The missing on Kino.de