Against fear
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Against fear |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2019 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Andreas Herzog |
| script | Robert Hummel |
| production | Heike Streich |
| music | Christopher Bremus |
| camera | Lars Liebold |
| cut | Gerald Slovak |
| occupation | |
| |
Against fear is a German television film from 2019 by Andreas Herzog with Nadja Uhl and Dirk Borchardt in the leading roles. The crime film was broadcast for the first time on March 25, 2019 on ZDF .
action
Prosecutor Judith Schrader recently started working in the field of organized crime. The commission that is currently investigating the Al-Fadi clan is now under their leadership. Jan Wiegand's team has been trying to put a stop to protection racket and other illegal business of the clan for a long time. Wiegand is too reckless when deployed. He is shot by clan member Hisham Al-Fadi and dies in hospital a few days later. Hisham Al-Fadi escapes under the eyes of the police trainee Layla Sharif, who confronts him in shock and is unable to act. Not just because she isn't allowed to carry a gun yet, but because she knows the suspect.
Due to the exchange of fire, Chief Inspector Jochen Montag from the homicide squad appears at the scene and is now investigating together with the public prosecutor. She also has a very personal interest in holding the perpetrator accountable because she had an affair with Wiegand. It turns out that proving and bringing charges are difficult as all possible incriminations against Hisham Al-Fadi are destroyed very quickly. The escape vehicle seized by the police was inexplicably set on fire overnight and a search of Hisham Al-Fadi's apartment, who was immediately counted as one of the suspects, did not produce any relevant evidence. However, when Schrader looks into the garbage can in the neighboring building, he finds sneakers with blood stains. That is enough for Schrader to initially suspect, but Al-Fadi's lawyer can avert the warrant. He uses his freedom to threaten Layla Sharif. He had seen her talking to the prosecutor and was afraid she might testify against him. So far, however, she had not spoken to anyone about having seen the perpetrator because she wanted to follow the extended family's code of honor. Al-Fadi's action now leads them to break it. She wants to testify against Hisham Al-Fadi, who is then arrested and Sharif is accepted into the witness protection program.
Clan chief Machmoud Al-Fadi is now putting Sharif's family under pressure. So it happens that Layla Sharif has to decide: testify and possibly break with her family, or never become a police officer. The decision is made more difficult when Sharif is kidnapped from the safe house despite being guarded and only released shortly before the decisive court hearing. Under this mental strain, Sharif revokes the testimony she gave to the public prosecutor's office weeks ago. To prevent an impending acquittal, public prosecutor Judith Schrader resorted to a trick and thus interrupted the trial. She uses the time saved to talk to Sharif's mother and get her to come to the trial. With this moral support and the encouragement of Schrader, Judith Schrader truthfully testifies and Hisham Al-Fadi is convicted.
A short time later, police candidate Layla Sharif is found dead.
background
Against fear was filmed under the working title Die Jägerin from June 5 to July 4, 2018 in Berlin .
For the year 2019 he takes up a “hot topic”, since Arab clans in particular have been causing a stir in the media for a long time. Family names like Abou-Chaker , Al-Zein and Rammo are known to politics and justice. Most of them are members of Kurdish and Palestinian extended families who fled to Germany in the 1980s from the civil war in Lebanon . They weren't allowed to work here for a long time. The majority remained innocent, but some family members chose criminal careers. Criminal clans are currently active in drug trafficking, extortion of protection money and break-ins , especially in Berlin , Bremen , North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony . These include such spectacular coups as the robbery of the 100 kilogram gold coin in 2017 from the Bode Museum Berlin and the jewel theft in Dresden Zwinger in 2019, for which members of an extended family of Arab origin are held responsible.
The film was prepared for three years. Screenwriter Robert Hummel is a half-Arab and had previously researched the topic intensively. He was also a lay judge at the Berlin Regional Court for five years and was able to contribute his experience in the judiciary. It was important to him not to lapse into simple black-and-white drawings, but to show the unscrupulousness of the criminal gangs, which the law enforcement agencies often have to endure. "Sometimes they are helpless, but by no means generally powerless," said Hummel. The screenwriter can be seen in Against Fear in a supporting role as Oberkommissar Lange.
reception
Audience rating
The first broadcast of Gegen die Angst on March 25, 2019 on ZDF reached 6.0 million viewers and a market share of 19.0 percent.
Reviews
Against fear was controversially discussed by the critics .
Thomas Gehringer from Tittelbach.tv rated the film positively: “The fight against clans of Arab origin has become a political issue, the film comes at the right time. Because the crime drama tells in an oppressive way how the rule of law reaches its limits. ”“ The rather coarse and predictable introduction including the usual dialogue sentences [...] does not necessarily suggest a crime story that stands out from everyday TV life. But you could also see it this way: The film gets to the point quickly. "
A "remarkably densely narrated crime thriller in which there is no idle moment," says Tilmann P. Gangloff on evangelisch.de. “[Hummel's] Arabic roots were the perfect prerequisite to authentically portray the family ties on the part of the clan. [...] Director Andreas Herzog has ensured that the deep emotional ties within the Lebanese family and their contemptuous attitude towards German jurisprudence create a captivating contrast to the stoic mills of the law. "
According to Peter Zander ( Berliner Morgenpost ), "the crime thriller [...] literally takes place in front of the door and is frighteningly realistically staged - including the impotence of the investigators", but the critic problematizes the effect on the viewer: "When films are about hot topics it is always exciting to see what conclusion they come to. But with the dark ending of 'Against Fear' you are doing the topic a disservice. Anyone who sees this film will think much more carefully afterwards whether to testify against a clan. "
"A good, because clever, emotional, but rarely pathetic film," said Jan Freitag in the Tagesspiegel . "The hardened fatalism of OC investigator Jochen Montag (Dirk Borchardt), for example, sometimes has an almost documentary effect, the police work as a whole more explanatory than instructive and the social environment is not draped in a television-friendly manner, but mostly authentic."
The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger thinks Hummel's figure drawing is excellent. “The core of the story [...] is told in an exciting and believable way. Above all, it makes clear the tension between two women. The young policewoman has to choose between the truth and the honor of her family, and the prosecutor has to come to terms with the fact that her lover is in a coma and that her professional approach seems at least questionable. In other words: the truth demands a very high price. "
At Spiegel.de , Oliver Kaever wrote: “It's not that the makers of 'Gegen die Angst' don't try to paint a realistic picture of the investigation.” “Basically, however, the film […] suffers from excessive fear before one's own courage. As if not to expect too much from the viewer, he tries to depoliticize the event and bring it to a private level. "
Oliver Junge from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung assessed: “Against fear” “failed furiously. The plot is applauded so lovelessly that the actors, all of them one-dimensional cliché figures, can hardly believe their anger, despair and sadness despite their overly clear facial expressions. "
For the Frankfurter Rundschau , Harald Keller said: “The opening scene is underlaid with Placebo's cover version of Kate Bush's 'Running Up the Hill', which will become the musical theme of the crime film. The song also corresponds lyrically with the story - Judith Schrader not only runs up the hill, she also runs, symbolically speaking, against walls several times. "" Without lapsing into simplistic black and white drawings, [the film] is sufficiently unscrupulous the criminal gangs in front of their eyes as well as the ambivalence on the part of the law enforcement agencies. "
Julian Miller judged for quotenmeter.de that the script was “ because of its theme [failed and] is expanded to include the uninspired staging: Silly slow motions are supposed to suggest drama, and when it gets loud and angry, pathetic string melodies take over. The focus is entirely on an overstylized emotionalization, the mechanisms of action and stylistic devices of which are as cheap as the gold chains of the Arab clan brothers. "
Birgit Baumann from Der Standard criticized: “Too much was promised. How a clan works, what holds it together, who its coasters are, all of this remains completely in the dark. The Al-Fadi brothers are just criminals who utter pathetic sentences about family honor. Nothing of the mafia-like structures is visible, but the inevitable love story is given plenty of space. It only gets really exciting after the depressing and surprising end of the film. There is a worth seeing documentary about clans that provides insights that weren't available in the film. "
Trivia
Against fear was nominated for the prize of the German TV Crime Festival in Wiesbaden and had its world premiere there on March 13, 2019. It was also shown as the opening film at the largest European tri-media festival, Prix Europa, on October 6, 2019 in Potsdam. Then there was a Q&A with Atheer Adel, Dirk Borchardt and Robert Hummel. At the Jupiter Award 2020, Nadja Uhl was nominated for her role in Gegen die Angst in the category Best TV Actress.
Joachim Schmitz, who sees an “extremely strong film” in Gegen die Angst , recapitulates a conversation with screenwriter Hummel in the NOZ. It says, among other things: “[It] begs the question of whether a screenwriter who researches in the clan milieu does not put himself in danger, but Robert Hummel waves it aside: 'I'm not worried about that. I am half-Arab, have done martial arts and can defend myself against my skin. In addition, an acquaintance from the security department always says: The most powerful family in this city is wearing a blue uniform and is there within five minutes. '"
Web links
- Against fear in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Against the fear at fernsehserien.de
- Against the fear at crew united
- Against fear official website of the ZDF
Individual evidence
- ↑ Against the fear at crew united . Retrieved January 16, 2020.
- ↑ Fight against a criminal clan at goldenekamera.de, accessed on January 16, 2020.
- ↑ Media correspondence , accessed on July 16, 2020.
- ↑ Nadja Uhl, Amali, Borchardt, Hummel, Herzog. Oppressive parallel society at Tittelbach.tv , accessed on January 16, 2020.
- ↑ TV tip: “Against fear” (ZDF) on evangelisch.de , accessed on July 15, 2020.
- ↑ Clan crime thriller “Against fear”: Very close to reality in the Berliner Morgenpost , accessed on July 15, 2020.
- ↑ Nadja Uhl in the fight against Berlin clans in Der Tagesspiegel , accessed on July 15, 2020.
- ↑ Against the fear of criticism of the film in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, accessed on July 15, 2020.
- ↑ Better not to look closely in Der Spiegel , accessed on January 16, 2020.
- ↑ Who is afraid of this clan? Review of the film in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , accessed on January 16, 2020.
- ↑ It stays in the family at fr.de , accessed on January 16, 2020.
- ↑ Against fear at quotenmeter.de , accessed on January 16, 2020.
- ↑ Too much promised criticism of the film at derstandard.de, accessed on January 16, 2020.
- ↑ Press release , accessed on July 15, 2020.
- ↑ Europa goes Potsdam , accessed on July 15, 2020.
- ↑ on the Jupiter Award, accessed on July 15, 2020.
- ↑ Joachim Schmitz in conversation with Robert Hummel: Strong substance criticism of the film in the NOZ, accessed on July 16, 2020.