Fortress (film)

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Movie
Original title Fortress
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2011
length 91 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Kirsi Marie Liimatainen
script Nicole Armbruster
production Alexandra Kordes
Meike Kordes
music Matthias Petsche
camera Christine A. Maier
cut Sarah J. Levine
occupation

Fortress (international title "Fortress") is a German feature film from 2011 . Directed by Kirsi Marie Liimatainen , Elisa Essig and Peter Lohmeyer as well as Karoline Herfurth and Ursina Lardi play the leading roles . The world premiere took place in Canada at the Montréal World Film Festival on August 24, 2011. German cinema premiere was only 15 months later on November 29, 2012. The film was first broadcast on German television on August 5, 2014 on ZDF.

The film shows the life of thirteen-year-old Johanna who tries to maintain the facade of an intact family despite her violent father.

action

Johanna is almost fourteen and suffers from her abusive father, who often beats her mother. Her older sister Claudia moved out a long time due to the domestic situation and cannot understand why her mother is not separating from her husband. Johanna and her six-year-old sister Moni are helplessly exposed to the psychological terror of their father. Johanna is ashamed of her father's continued attacks, but also has to discover how much her little sister has taken up the vocabulary of swear words her father uses in her language use. She wants to protect Moni, which is not always easy for her. Her teacher's son Christian Waidele, with whom she fell in love, gives her hope. She enjoys having someone to lean on. On the other hand, although she likes him because of his calm demeanor, she misses a dominant demeanor, as her father always shows. This leads to initial conflicts because Christian does not know the background to Johanna's mood swings. Johanna withholds her family situation from him and pretends to be a completely normal home.

After another beating, Johanna's mother wants to leave her husband, but, as is so often the case, she can't finish it. Her mother-in-law wants to give them their hotel soon, but only on the condition that there is no talk about her in town. At a party to which Johanna was invited together with Christian, she cannot let go of her personal tension. She had told her little sister to ring her if something was wrong at home. Therefore, she leaves the party early, which Christian misunderstands. For fear of escalation, she hides the truth, which is not good for their relationship. She celebrates her fourteenth birthday with her family in her grandma's hotel, but Johanna is not really happy. Apart from her big sister Claudia, she has no other guests. It doesn't take long for Claudia to quarrel with her father again and then deliberately drives her car against his father. Robert whispers angrily to his wife: “You don't have your fucking children under control.” In the meantime Christian had come and had to watch the family chaos. Johanna retires with him to one of the hotel rooms, while her mother asks Claudia to take Moni with her. She realizes that this day is not going to end well. Robert hits her so badly in the evening that she can't get up the next day either. Johanna now not only has to look after her little sister, but also her mother. At school she is approached by the teacher Waidele. He learned from Christian how her family was suffering from her father and said he had to inform the youth welfare office. Johanna wants to prevent this at all costs and unceremoniously accuses her teacher of sexual assault in order to make him unbelievable. Christian then turns away from her and Johanna gets a fit of anger at home and destroys all the things that her father once gave her. When she notices that her mother is getting worse and that she has even lost consciousness, she calls the emergency services.

Hoping to be reconciled with Christian, she tentatively approaches him.

background

The shooting took place from September 14 to October 31, 2010 in Heppenheim and the surrounding area in Hesse .

criticism

Tittelbach.tv rated: “Because of its closeness to reality, 'fortress' is not easy fare. The restrained staging, which does without dramatic background music and a dynamic cut, makes it difficult for the viewer to distance himself from the fate of the characters. In this way, the cyclical structure of the narrative, in which, as in real life, attacks are followed by apologies and repeated attacks, makes the audience long for the end of the film - simply so that they no longer have to endure the oppressive cycle of violence. It is good and right that Liimatainen torments her viewers a little here. Domestic violence is not an issue for shallow evening entertainment. "

Sophie Charlotte Rieger wrote for filmstarts.de : “Every fourth woman in Germany will be the victim of domestic violence at some point in her life. With this horrifying number in mind, any serious discussion of this topic is highly welcome. In her film drama 'Fortress', the Finnish director Kirsi Marie Liimatainen now tells the story of a family marked by violent attacks by their father. The filmmaker shows the characters' emotional injuries in a very realistic way and expects her audience to do a lot: a startling and demanding work about a problem that still receives far too little attention. "

At epd-film.de, Patrick Seyboth judged: “Growing up and first love are under dark omens for Johanna. Wherever she needs to find support and security, there is silence and fear. The father has just returned from therapy, with gifts and goodwill, but he still has no control over his aggressions. The staging does not put the freaking out and beatings of the father against the mother directly into the picture, it illuminates the effects. The family has become a 'fortress', a precarious system that can only be maintained in isolation from the outside world, behind the facade of an ideal world. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Essig, Göbel, Lardi, Lohmeyer, Herfurth, Liimatainen. A domestic violence drama on Tittelbach.tv , accessed on February 25, 2019.
  2. ^ Sophie Charlotte Rieger: Review on Filmstarts.de , accessed on August 13, 2014.
  3. ↑ Patrick Seyboth: Film review at epd-film.de, accessed on February 25, 2019.