Freistatt (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Sanctuary |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2015 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Marc Brummund |
| script |
Nicole Armbruster , Marc Brummund |
| production |
Rüdiger Heinze , Stefan Sporbert |
| music | Anne Nikitin |
| camera | Judith Kaufmann |
| cut | Hans Funck |
| occupation | |
| |
Freistatt is a German film by Marc Brummund from 2015 that uses a personal example to deal with abusive and degrading methods in church reforming homes of the late 1960s.
The film premiered at the Max Ophüls Preis film festival , where it was awarded the audience award and the youth jury award. It was released in theaters on June 25, 2015. The shooting was supported by the von Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel , which in 1968 sponsored the shown facility of today's Diakonie Freistatt in Freistatt , as a contribution to coming to terms with its past.
The film was first shown on television on January 20, 2017 on arte in a length of almost 98 minutes, on April 12, 2017 in the ARD program and on January 31, 2018 on 3sat in a length of almost 90 minutes each.
action
Summer 1968. The 14-year-old Wolfgang Sievers from Osnabrück is a cheerful, somewhat cocky boy, but he repeatedly defies his stepfather , whom he despises, until he goes against the will of his mother, who cannot assert herself against her husband of his rebellion is deported to the reform home Moorhort of the Diakonie Freistatt . In his luggage he has a picture of his mother, with whom he has a close relationship. In Freistatt, he is initially received in a friendly manner by the householder Brockmann, but is immediately confronted with his file, which shows the previous aborted home stays. Wolfgang replies that he always only fought and never became violent.
Life in the home turns out to be a barrack-like drill under Christian guise. On the very first day, Wolfgang experiences how the weak boy Mattis is supposed to receive a punishment from Bernd, the “highest ranking” of the group, and spontaneously speaks up for Mattis, whereupon he gets the punishment himself. His sensitive sense of justice makes him unpopular even with those he seeks to stand by. Only the shy Afro-German Anton was looking for Wolfgang's friendship from the start and claimed that he was also from Osnabrück.
During the day the pupils , as the boys are called and addressed in the home, are in the moor digging peat. Wolfgang first has to work in wooden shoes, he should only get boots after two months. When he complains about it, Brother Wilde, one of the two overseers, knocks him down with the spade and tries to escape for the first time, but gets lost in the moor and is caught. Collective penalties are always imposed for such incidents, the individual punishment of the guilty is left to the group. Since it is Wolfgang's nature not to put up with anything, he repeatedly comes into conflict with Bernd. Wolfgang, on the other hand, only wants to protect himself from himself: In Freistatt you can only survive if you adapt.
Brockmann's daughter Angelika seems to like Wolfgang, even though she has no contact with the boys. Wolfgang secretly hands her a letter to his mother, in which he asks to bring him out of the home because he can no longer stand it. In return, Angelika lets him stroke her, but when Brockmann notices this, she turns the scene around and claims that Wolfgang has molested her. Brockmann punishes the entire group with food withdrawal. In order to get the boys the food they need for their hard work, Wolfgang tries to steal tomatoes from the father's garden - his sanctuary - but is surprised by Brockmann and punished by being immersed in the water barrel. Nevertheless, he then continues the tomato harvest and is so abused by Brother Wilde with a bull piz that the group has to carry him to the dormitory. Wolfgang's strength of character impresses the other boys.
At one point the group rioted when Brockmann took the portable radio away from the youth as punishment for Wolfgang's letter for help, which Brockmann had discovered from Angelika, and asked Brother Wilde to keep things in order. Anton begins singing the chorus Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child that was previously on the radio in the version by Richie Havens , and the group joins the "Freedom" calls. For this they are all put in the holding cell together. Bernd tries to make it clear to Wolfgang that his mother has forgotten him, after all she never writes to him.
On Christmas Eve, Wolfgang discovers his favorite cold dog cake on the tables in the way his mother makes it and concludes from this that she wrote him and sent him cakes, only all the shipments were intercepted. When Brockmann announced that Brother Krapp, the friendlier of the two guards, would be leaving the home, Mattis upset. From his uncontrolled remarks it can be seen that there is a sexual relationship between him and Krapp and that he is completely devoted to Krapp. As Krapp's successor, the naive, insecure brother Hanebuth comes to Freistatt, to whom Mattis immediately attaches himself.
Wolfgang had previously received the house key from Angelika in the bell bag during Christmas mass. With that he opens the outer door, but is provided by Brockmann. As a punishment, Wolfgang is now hung on the basement ceiling on chains, he almost loses consciousness and has hallucinations: If he was shown in the opening credits with his mother only in a boisterous mood on the beach, this scene shows an erotic-incestuous relationship between the two . Soon afterwards Angelika said goodbye to Wolfgang, she was going to a boarding school in Hamburg. There is tenderness, but then Wolfgang begins to use violence. Angelika breaks free and runs away.
In another argument in the moor, Brother Wilde is hit in the face by Wolfgang from behind with a spade and seriously injured after a meanness against Mattis. Wolfgang and Anton flee through the moor, first on foot, then in a horse truck to Osnabrück. When Wolfgang wants to say goodbye to Anton there, it turns out that Anton no longer has a goal or parents. He had obviously hoped to be able to stay with Wolfgang, but Wolfgang considers that to be impossible. He gives Anton some change and leaves him on the street.
At home, Wolfgang is greeted warmly by his mother, his stepfather continues to be negative. He begs his parents not to have to go back to Freistatt. Brockmann appears, who has already caught Anton again. But Wolfgang's mother has at least become suspicious that she wants to see the home for herself. They drive there together, but Wolfgang has barely got out of the car when his stepfather locks the car and drives away again, although Wolfgang shows his mother his welts and wounds from outside.
Brother Wilde takes revenge on Wolfgang by burying him alive in the moor with the help of Bernd, who is reluctant to take part. When Brockmann digs him up again, he is on the verge of suffocation. Anton, who thinks Wolfgang is dead, has lost all hope and hanged himself in the dormitory. When Brother Wilde discovers this and, after making a racist remark, wants to go straight back to business, he is overwhelmed by the boys. They brutally beat him up and flee in their nightgowns. Wolfgang does not participate and stays with Anton. His death broke his character, he is now adapting. Cut to 1970: Wolfgang has taken on Bernd's role, he is allowed to give Brother Wilde a light and calls for roll call in the morning.
After his stepfather has a fatal accident, Wolfgang is released and driven home. Without ringing the doorbell, he walks past the house into the garden, where the terrace table is set with a cold dog as a greeting. Mother and sister are busy in the house. When Wolfgang's little half-sibling comes out on the terrace and stares at the strange boy, he feels disgust, packs half of the cake and leaves again unseen. He meets former friends on the street and borrows money, but when someone tries to touch the cake, Wolfgang knocks him down. In the final scene he drives past Freistatt on a train with an unclear destination and watches the boys drive into the moor.
Making the film
The film was produced by Zum Goldenen Lamm Filmproduktion in co-production with SWR (Baden-Baden), SR (Saarbrücken), WDR (Cologne) and NDR (Hamburg) as well as in collaboration with Arte . The shooting took place from August 13, 2012 to September 13, 2013 in Lower Saxony , Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein , both at original locations such as the welfare home in Freistatt and in Osnabrück , Bramsche , Ehrenburg -Wietinghausen, Hamburg and on Sylt .
Authenticity of the film plot
Home education in general
The situations described in the film relate to home education, as it was not uncommon in the years before 1970 and sometimes even later:
Home education in sanctuary
In the credits, pictures of the former sanctuary are shown. This should emphasize the documentary character of the film. However, the film is called a "fictional drama" by the Freistätter Online Zeitung . In fact, the film allows itself a few deviations from reality: In 1968 and 1969, for example, no more passenger trains drove past Freistatt on the Nienburg – Diepholz railway line , and Richie Haven's song "Freedom", sung in Woodstock in August 1969 , was not until 1970 released film of the same name in Germany known to a larger audience.
The role model for "Wolfgang" is Wolfgang Rosenkötter, who was assigned to the "Moorhort" in Freistatt for 15 months in 1961. His experiences, which are described in the book Beats in the Name of Mr. by Peter Wensierski , published in 2006 , form the basis of the film plot.
The Freistätter Online Zeitung certifies that the film has a realistic core: “The most depressing thing in this environment of violence and abuse is probably the betrayal of the relatives of the boys, who do not want to see signs of abuse and oppression and who hand over all responsibility for their children to the Christian institution - they will already know what to do - in the terminus Freistatt. [...] There were obviously - as evidenced by contemporary witnesses - places in Germany where children and young people were abused and tortured with the tolerance of our society, with no real hope of being able to escape their prison. "
Symbolism in the film
By singing the moor soldiers' song on their first march into the moor shown in the film, the pupils make it clear that their situation is comparable to that of the prisoners in the Börgermoor concentration camp in Emsland . All the songs sung in German (ultimately even the Christmas carol O dujoyful ) stand for oppression; Rebellion and the desire for freedom, on the other hand, are expressed through songs in English. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: "The authoritarian character meets popular culture, the Protestant hymn meets the American spiritual."
Reviews
"The raw energy of the film with its oppressive effect really captivates you."
“That happens again and again in Marc Brummund's first movie. The reflection of the educational horror in the freedom of nature. The time of the liberation of a twisted republic bringing into the prison that she built for her rebellious children. Sometimes it gets a little under-subtle and over-ambitious. "
“Director Marc Brummund, who attended the directing master class at the Hamburg Media School, and his outstanding camerawoman Judith Kaufmann immersed the imposing northern German moorland in brilliant light and found great cinematic images. Sometimes these show values run the risk of playing down the cruel situation of the protagonists. But the strong main actors, above all the extremely strong Louis Hofmann as Wolfgang and his opponent Alexander Held as 'housefather', leave no doubt that sanctuary for the young people imprisoned there is nothing less than hell on earth. "
“The film convinces with finely drawn characters and an explosive dramaturgy that is based on great prison dramas [...]. [...] Thrillingly played and staged with strong images. "
Quote
“The film was made with the support of the Diakonie at the original locations not far from my hometown Diepholz , where a little later I was able to experience a much happier childhood. But I felt the spirit of “ black pedagogy ” and the fear of God right up to the school desk. The contrast between the sexual revolution and liberalization at the end of the 1960s and the time that stood still in such a closed, repressive system was my incentive to combine the harshness and relevance of the topic with genre, adventure and show values in a youth drama. The classic tales of Charles Dickens and films like Boys Town (1938), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Escape In Chains (1958), They Kissed and They Beat him (1959), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), The Condemned (1994), Sleepers (1996) and The Merciless Sisters (2002) were my role models. "
Awards
-
Prix Europa 2015
- Prix Genève Europe for the best young scriptwriter
- Festival International du Film Historique de Waterloo 2015
- four prizes
- Film Festival Max Ophüls Prize 2015
-
Bavarian Film Award 2014
- Louis Hofmann, Best Young Actor
-
German Script Award 2013
- Golden Lola
-
International Film Festival Emden-Norderney 2012
- Emder script award
The German Film and Media Assessment (FBW) in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating of particularly valuable .
Web links
- Sanctuary in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Freistatt at filmportal.de
- Official page for the film
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for free place . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2015 (PDF; test number: 149 924 K).
- ↑ a b The Prize Winners 2015. (No longer available online.) Film Festival Max Ophüls Preis , January 24, 2015, archived from the original on July 3, 2015 ; Retrieved June 9, 2015 . 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.
- ↑ a b sanctuary. In: Filmportal.de . German Film Institute , accessed on June 9, 2015 .
- ↑ v. Bodelschwingh Foundation Bethel: The film "Freistatt" comes to the cinemas . June 24, 2015, accessed July 10, 2015
- ↑ Christian Vennefrohne media production: Sanctuary
- ↑ nordmedia-funded productions 2013 p. 10
- ↑ a b Bethel Foundation: “Freistatt” film premiere in Diepholz ( memento of the original from September 22, 2017 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. . Freistätter Online Newspaper . June 29, 2015, accessed July 10, 2015
- ^ Film "Freistatt" presented in the Osnabrück cinema Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung . June 28, 2015, accessed July 10, 2015
- ↑ Peter Wensierski: Strikes in the name of the Lord: The repressed history of the children in the Federal Republic , Goldmann Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-442-12974-4
- ^ Bert Rebhandl: "Freistatt" in the cinema - grotesque tilting figures of history . Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . May 25, 2015, accessed July 12, 2015
- ^ Film review on Spielfilm.de , accessed on July 6, 2015.
- ↑ In the children's home, in God's name, raised to violence Die Welt, June 25, 2015, accessed on July 6, 2015.
- ^ Film review on Kino.de , accessed on July 6, 2015.
- ^ Black pedagogy in the north German moor. femundo.de, August 10, 2018, accessed on March 12, 2019 .
- ↑ film booklet. Berlin Education and Science Union, accessed on January 25, 2017.
- ↑ La Palmares 2015 Website Festival International du Film Historique de Waterloo, accessed on November 5, 2015.
- ↑ Bavarian Film Prize 2014 awarded. In: Filmportal.de. Deutsches Filminstitut, January 17, 2015, accessed June 9, 2015 .
- ↑ German Screenplay Prize 2013 awarded. In: Filmportal.de. Deutsches Filminstitut, February 11, 2013, accessed on June 9, 2015 .
