End of the closed season

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Movie
Original title End of the closed season
Country of production Germany , Israel
original language German
Publishing year 2012
length 98 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Franziska Schlotterer
script Franziska Schlotterer, Gwendolyn Bellmann
production Philipp Homberg, Christian Drewing
music Ari Benjamin Meyers
camera Bernd Fischer
cut Karl Riedl
occupation
Actors and director of the film: Hans-Jochen Wagner , Franziska Schlotterer , Christian Friedel and Brigitte Hobmeier (July 2011)

The end of the closed season is a feature film by director Franziska Schlotterer based on a script by Gwendolyn Bellmann and Franziska Schlotterer from 2012. The plot of the film is set in 1942 in the Black Forest . The married couple Fritz and Emma hide the Jewish refugee Albert on their remote farm. Since the couple's marriage has so far remained childless due to the man's impotence, Fritz asks Albert to sleep with his wife and father a child in his place.

It was premiered at the end of the closed season on July 1, 2012 at the Munich Film Festival . It opened in theaters on February 14, 2013.

action

Bruno, a solitary student, traveled from Germany to Israel in 1970 to a remote kibbutz to look for his birth father. He has a letter from his late mother in his luggage that he is supposed to hand over to his father. But the Holocaust survivor Avi brusquely rejects Bruno. He doesn't want the young German to bother him and his family with the past. Only with great persistence does Bruno Avi break his silence and remember.

In 1942 the young Avi, then Albert, is on the run from the Nazis. In the unsuccessful attempt to escape the closely guarded border from the Black Forest to Switzerland , he is picked up by the farmer Fritz. He hides the Jew against the will of his wife Emma in the barn of the remote farm. In return, Albert helps with the stable work. The reputation of the farmer in the village suffers from the fact that his marriage has so far remained childless. In his desperation, Fritz asks Albert to sleep with his wife and to father a child in his place. Albert feels he has an obligation to the farmer and therefore agrees after a moment's hesitation. The farmer's wife doesn't really have a choice either.

So it comes to the act between Albert and Emma, ​​who experiences herself and her sexuality as something completely new and really blossoms. Emma feels more and more sexual desire, and gradually an affection for Albert develops; She therefore keeps her pregnancy to herself for the time being. Albert is in a quandary; on the one hand he feels oppressed by Emma's physicality, on the other hand threatened by the farmer's growing jealousy. Fritz doesn't miss Emma's change either; he is fighting desperately to keep the situation under control. Only when she can no longer hide it, Emma admits that she is pregnant. Fritz's joy only lasts for a short time, as he quickly realizes that Emma has betrayed him and has known about her pregnancy for a long time. Fritz gets enraged and wants to chase Albert off the farm, but Emma threatens Fritz to tell everyone that he is not the father of her child. Fritz goes to the inn full of hatred, where the whole regulars' table is already waiting to toast his fatherhood with him. Emma wants to take the opportunity to sleep with Albert again. Albert, however, is afraid and pushes her back. The next morning he was picked up by the Gestapo .

Albert survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and in 1945 stood at the door of the completely terrified peasantry. He learns that Emma lost the child after his arrest. Albert is tormented by the question of who betrayed him. Emma and Fritz reject all guilt, but get caught up in contradictions. Then he realizes that both of them are lying. Just because a violent storm is raging outside does it stay overnight. In the middle of the night Emma sneaks into Albert's room. Albert can't stand their proximity. When she cannot be put off at all, he suddenly grabs her madly and takes her. Nothing is left of the tender lover of yore. He is brutal and ruthless. Emma lets it happen in silence. Bruno is conceived that night. When Albert leaves the farm in the morning, walking past Fritz without a word, Fritz takes his own life with his hunting rifle.

Bruno is deeply moved by the story of its genesis. Avi and Bruno are now reading Emma's letter together. In it, Emma admits that it was she who reported Albert in her hurt pride. Bruno finds it difficult to believe that his mother, who sacrificed herself for him, took such guilt on herself. Avi supports Bruno in his pain. Avi was able to talk about his past for the first time. This helps him to find a new way of dealing with his trauma. For Bruno the confrontation with his mother's difficult legacy has, in addition to all the horror, something liberating.

Production and background

The film was made as a German - Israeli coproduction. The shooting took place mainly on the Windberghof in St. Blasien in the Black Forest and in the Kibbutz Ruchama (רוחמה) near Be'er Scheva .

The band that can be seen in the film is the trio Bostanjoglo from Vöhrenbach in the Black Forest-Baar district .

The film was funded by the Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg , the German Film Fund , the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and the Israel Film Fund .

The film was released on DVD in Germany on September 27, 2013 . The free TV premiere took place on May 4, 2015 on EinsPlus .

Franziska Schlotterer on the film

“The end of the closed season is about the effects of political and social power structures on the morale of the individual. The film addresses the extent to which unequal power relationships and dependencies can make a person who actually has a clear idea of ​​good and bad, corruptible. If it seems opportune to us, are we all able to hide our consciences as soon as the society around us does not punish our wrongdoing? And where does that lead? "

- Franziska Schlotterer

Reviews

Hans-Jörg Rother describes the film in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as a story that "casts a spell over the viewer from beginning to end". The actors “convincingly brought life to the characters”. Rother sees a closeness to the documentary, which has been the director's field of work up to now: "Schlotterer stages short, concise scenes in which no camera view goes wrong and no dialogue word sounds artificial." The piece is "set with ethnographic accuracy in the time and the landscape" .

Awards

Festival participation

Germany

Europe

  • Bolzano Film Festival
  • Plus Camerimage Bydgoszcz : Official Selection
  • Espoo Ciné International Film Festival, Finland
  • Galway Film Fleadh, Ireland
  • Festival of German Film Madrid

America

  • Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
  • Festival of German Films Buenos Aires
  • Festival du Monde Montreal
  • San Diego Jewish Film Festival
  • San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
  • Toronto Jewish Film Festival

Others

Web links

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  1. ↑ Release certificate for the end of the closed season . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , January 2013 (PDF; test number: 136 967 K).
  2. ↑ Brigitte Frank-Gauckler: Film with live music brings a full house . In: Black Forest Messenger . October 22, 2013 ( online [accessed October 22, 2013]).
  3. ↑ a b Official film page of the distributor, accessed on February 11, 2016
  4. ↑ Festival press booklet for the film from the Munich Film Festival (PDF; 450 kB), accessed on March 25, 2013
  5. ^ Film Art Prize of the Festival of German Films. Prize winners 2013. www.festival-des-deutschen-films.de, accessed on August 26, 2013 .
  6. ↑ End of the closed season awards. www.imdb.com, accessed February 11, 2016 .
  7. ^ Hustle and bustle, heat, big words: Bavarian Film Prize in Munich. (No longer available online.) T-online.de, January 18, 2014, archived from the original on January 18, 2014 ; Retrieved January 18, 2014 . 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.t-online.de