Ella's secret

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Movie
Original title Ella's secret
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2010
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Rainer Kaufmann
script Stefanie Sycholt
production Marlow De Mardt
camera Klaus Eichhammer
cut Christel Suckow
occupation

Ella's Secret is a German television film by Rainer Kaufmann from 2010 with Hannelore Hoger in the leading role, which was produced for ZDF .

action

The Hamburg neuropsychologist Ella Hartmann travels to South Africa to attend the funeral of her sister Hilde . They both grew up there and while she went to Germany, Hilde stayed in her parents' house and continued to run the rooibos farm. On the day of the funeral, Ella senses that some of them don't welcome her here. She actually wants to leave as soon as possible, but her car has yet to be repaired and the estate settled. But even more serious is an ongoing criminal case that affects the farm it now owns. So she is not allowed to leave the country for the time being until the matter has been resolved. She sued her farm neighbor Jack Reed, of all people, because her sister owed him money. He would like to take over their farm to make room for the Bushmen , who are still being oppressed even though apartheid has actually ended. In addition to the offer from Reed, there is an offer from an investment company, which is represented by Mali, the daughter of Ella's (colored) friend Saartjie. As a result, Ella decides not to sell to either of them, but to work the farm until the rooibos harvest has been brought in and she can pay the debts of her sisters to Reed. But that turns out to be more difficult than expected, because initially she cannot get any assistants to work for her and she cannot do it on her own. After the harvest has ended happily, it could actually leave.

Flashbacks tell Ella's youth in Africa, whose grandparents moved here as missionaries. As a young girl she fell in love with the colored Ben, which had to be kept secret under all circumstances, because racial mixing was a criminal offense at the time. She saw Ben being taken away by the police. She later learned that he allegedly had a fatal accident in prison. When she found out she was pregnant, she had to secretly give birth to her child and give it away as soon as it was born. She never saw her little Maria again.

The thought of being able to meet her daughter after 40 years had preoccupied Ella at the beginning of her journey. Even during her entire stay in the land of her youth, the mostly painful memory is omnipresent. Now, shortly before her return trip to Germany, she learns that her friend Saartjie Maria (as Mali) raised her. Nobody knows about it and Ella wants to leave it with a heavy heart. But her clever grandson Biko has found out and so Saartjie has to confess to her Mali that Ella is not her birth mother, but Ella. For Mali this is a shock - she carries the blood of the whites into her - she who has plotted solely and exclusively to fight for complete freedom for the local population, which means for her the connection to the western world and therefore modern investments as the great future.

In a discussion between mother and daughter, Ella explains that giving away her baby was the hardest thing she had ever had to do in her life and she has not forgotten it for a day in the last 40 years. She therefore wants to transfer the farm to Mali, also because the property would then remain in the family. But Mali refuses and so Ella decides, also because of Reed's encouragement, to stay in South Africa for the time being.

background

Ella's Secret was filmed on locations in South Africa and Hamburg from January 29, 2008 to February 29, 2008 . UFA Fernsehproduktion was responsible for the film . After its TV premiere on January 22, 2010 on arte , the film was broadcast on May 17, 2010 as ZDF TV film of the week.

reception

Audience ratings

When it was first broadcast on ZDF on May 15, 2010 at prime time at 8:15 p.m., the film was seen by 4.81 million viewers and achieved a market share of 15.1 percent for ZDF.

criticism

Rainer Tittelbach from Tittelbach.tv judged the film: “It is a universal story with a political, biographical foundation and authentic, powerful characters. Parallel to the heroine's coming to terms with the past, the historical coming to terms with the past also comes into focus - and this is surprisingly cliché-free and differentiated. Although the extremely atmospheric production with its light-flooded, precisely composed images always resonates with a bit of African romanticism, the film by Rainer Kaufmann shows that the wounds of the racial segregation policy are far from healed. You can feel that the material is an affair of the heart for the author Stefanie Sycholt, who was born in Pretoria. "

The critics of the TV magazine TV Spielfilm said Ella's secret was "ultimately kitschy despite good approaches" and gave the film a medium rating, thumbs to the side.

Marco Croner evaluated forquotemeter.de and found: “Don't skip the spark completely, 'Ella's secret' trots from place to place, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. You are attached to the young Ella (Amelie Kiefer) and her desire for a future with Ben, as well as giving sympathy to the mature woman. The actions of the characters are understandable and justified. From a narrative point of view, the film is to be recommended without a doubt, but it is up to the individual to enjoy the very special motif of the topic. "

Kino.de wrote: The filmmakers have "succeeded in making a remarkable film, in which [...] the horrors of apartheid are told in a calm and gripping manner, which shows the division in South African society that continues to this day, and at the same time two soulful love stories to be developed. It is also thanks to Hannelore Hoger and Rolf Lassgård that the latter goes off without gusto. Both play scratchy crossheads with charm that nip any hint of kitsch in the bud. "

Thilo Wydra from Tagesspiegel.de wrote: “'Ella's secret', staged by Rainer Kaufmann based on the script by Stefanie Sycholt, is, that goes without saying with the names in front of and behind the camera, not one of the usual Friday liquorice rasp films. Nevertheless, there is a hitch and a bump in the dramaturgy, jumps between the scenes seem abrupt, the dialogues look like woodcut. Perhaps it was too much to want to combine the political-general and the private-individual, the inner and outer odyssey of this woman in 90 minutes. "

For the FAZ , Irene Bazinger judged: "The evening sky spans boundlessly, and the clouds make it appear like a mysterious, promising map on which dreams and longings, fears and ugliness spread side by side." This is how the main character presents her old home The story of the film itself "allows a completely calm, not always kitsch-free, but mostly sensitive and even humorous approach to the dark times of apartheid politics."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ella's Secret, TV Movie, 2008 | Crew United. Retrieved October 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Ella's secret on the press portal accessed in 2020.
  3. ↑ Audience ratings on May 17, 2010 at quotenmeter.de .
  4. ↑ Rainer Tittelbach : Rainer Kaufmann and the unhealed wounds of South African apartheid from Tittelbach.tv , accessed on February 23, 2020.
  5. ↑ TV Spielfilm Online: Ella's Secret - Film Review - Film - TV SPIELFILM. Retrieved October 6, 2019 (German).
  6. ↑ Marco Croner: Film criticism at Königinmeter.de , accessed on February 23, 2020.
  7. ↑ Film review at Kino.de , accessed on February 23, 2020.
  8. ↑ Thilo Wydra: Ella's secret - an odyssey at tagesspiegel.de , accessed on February 23, 2020.
  9. ↑ Irene Bazinger: The Smack of Home at faz.net , accessed on February 23, 2020.