God's Own Country
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | God's Own Country |
| Original title | God's Own Country |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2017 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Francis Lee |
| script | Francis Lee |
| production |
Manon Ardisson , Jack Tarling |
| music |
Dustin O'Halloran , Adam Wiltzie |
| camera | Joshua James Richards |
| cut | Chris Wyatt |
| occupation | |
| |
God's Own Country is a film drama directed by Francis Lee , which premiered on January 23, 2017 at the Sundance Film Festival . Lee's feature film debut as a director tells of a young sheep farmer in Yorkshire , England , who starts an affair with a Romanian migrant worker of the same age. At the 67th Berlinale , the film was shown in the Panorama section from February 11, 2017 .
action
Johnny Saxby is a young sheep farmer who lives on a farm in Yorkshire with his strict father Martin and grandmother Deirdre. Johnny's father suffered severe walking difficulties due to a stroke. Since then, Johnny has had to do most of the farm work alone. This responsibility weighs on him. His father was bitter before that because he was abandoned by his wife, Johnny's mother. Johnny's only way to get off the pressure is through quick, anonymous sex with men and his visits to the local pub, where he always drunk too much alcohol. Because Martin and Deirdre realize that Johnny is overwhelmed with sheep breeding, they decide to hire a temporary worker for the week in which the sheep have children. Johnny is against this proposal, but has to submit to his father.
When the Romanian migrant worker of the same age, Gheorghe, comes to the Saxbys' farm and moves into an old camper van, Johnny encounters him with hostility and mocks him as a "gypsy". The sensitive Gheorghe quickly earns respect through his diligence and skill with the cattle, while Johnny is rough with the animals. When they both move into a ruined farm for several days to monitor the pregnant sheep, a confrontation ensues. Johnny insults Gheorghe again as a "gypsy", whereupon Gheorghe overpowers him, which at the same time reveals an erotic attraction between them. He threateningly indicates to Johnny that he can no longer be called that. The next few days Johnny and Gheorghe sleep together and get closer. Gheorghe teaches Johnny not only to allow rough, quick sex, but also tenderness. Grandmother Deirdre discovers the relationship between the two by chance, but tolerates it, as Johnny noticeably begins to blossom.
When Martin suffers a second stroke, Johnny tries to persuade Gheorghe to stay. Gheorghe tells him that something will have to change on the farm. He sees no future in unprofitable sheep farming and instead suggests specializing in cheese-making. When the two of them visit the pub one evening, a break occurs - Gheorghe is again insulted by a drunk as a foreigner and defends himself, while the heavily drunk Johnny has sex with a stranger in the toilet. Angry and disappointed, Gheorghe leaves the Saxby's farm the next day. Johnny then realizes that he loves Gheorghe. He is reconciled with his father, who has been severely affected by a stroke, and tells him that he wants to continue running the farm as he sees fit. With the help of Deirdre, Johnny can track down Gheorghe on a distant potato farm and persuade him to return to the Saxby farm and share a future together.
production
Film title, idea and script
The film title God's Own Country , is a phrase originally used to describe the Wicklow Mountains , a mountain range in the east and southeast of Ireland, but later also areas in Surrey, Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Kerala, Cornwall, Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire. The nickname for Yorkshire derives on the one hand from the fact that many well-known Britons were born there, but also from there to be found, extraordinary natural beauty, which is why some areas have been declared nature reserves, such as the landscape of the Howardian Hills , which officially was declared an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty .
The director took Francis Lee , who also wrote the screenplay for the film. It is in God's Own Country to Lee's first feature film as a director and screenwriter. Lee grew up on his family's farm in Søyland, West Yorkshire. Lee made his directorial debut with The Farmer's Wife . After studying at Rose Bruford College, London, Lee worked as a theater, television and film actor before writing his first screenplay for the short film Bantam .
The plot for God's Own Country was his personal consideration of how his life would have been if he had stayed in Yorkshire and not attended drama school in London. According to his own statement, he didn't want to make a film that primarily focuses on coming out or homophobia : "I wanted to focus on what I always found most difficult in my life, to fall in love and to have to be open and vulnerable. to love and to be loved. ”Contrary to the usual stereotypes, he had never personally experienced homophobia among the rural residents in his home country, and this did not matter as long as one did his work and duties properly. For the figure of the Romanian worker, Lee used a personal acquaintance with a Romanian worker as a model, who told him about his experiences with racism in Great Britain.
actor
The main role of Johnny Saxby was cast by British actor Josh O'Connor . Gemma Jones and Ian Hart play his grandmother Deirdre and father Martin Saxby. Alec Secăreanu , whom he found through a Romanian casting agency, stars in the role of Romanian migrant worker Gheorghe Ionescu and was chosen because he had the best personal chemistry with O'Connor. Lee wanted his film to be as authentic as possible, which is why he had his actors do physical labor on various farms for weeks in preparation. This work included the lambing through to dry stone walls , and the cheese they could produce even after its preparation phase in the film. O'Connor and Secăreanu should feel comfortable in the landscape, the new work should become second nature to them, and they both developed a really strong bond with the farmers, so that O'Connor would still be with them after the filming was over was in contact with one of them, Lee said.
Filming
The film was shot in Yorkshire , where Lee was born. Lee began research and site visits back in 2014. After a tour of the chosen locations with the film crew in winter, the shooting and the simultaneous editing work began in March 2016 and lasted into the summer, with the scenes being filmed in chronological order. The film was filmed in and around Keighley , West Yorkshire , where Lee, who was born in Søyland, grew up on a farm near his father's estate. In Keighley, among other things, they shot at a bus stop. Other locations in Yorkshire were in the small town of Otley and Haworth , also in West Yorkshire , in the middle of the heather and moorland of the lower Yorkshire Dales , which is considered an unspoilt piece of nature. The news shown in the film about the 50th anniversary of the funeral service for Winston Churchill , which was celebrated in 2015, locates the action around that year.
Tim Lindemann from epd Film writes about the recordings that Lee captures the barreness of northern England in cool, minimalist, but impressive images and lets them unobtrusively become a metaphor for the emotional world of his protagonist Johnny.
Awareness of the location and film music
The landscape in West Yorkshire had already served the English writer Emily Brontë as a backdrop for her novel Sturmhöhe (original title: Wuthering Heights), in which she describes striking landscape points such as the Penistone Crags, Penistone Hill and the fairy cave at Ponden Kirk. The novel is considered a classic in 19th century British fiction. Some believe that the ruins of the Top Withens farmhouse on Haworth Moor were the inspiration for her novel, and that the village of Gimmerton, near which the novel is set, is based on the small town of Stanbury near Haworth. At the center of the nature-mystical novel is also the tough everyday life in agriculture in the windswept area of the raised bogs, the “Wuthering Heights” estate on a hill. The Haworth Moor is therefore also known as Brontës Moor. While filming, the film's makers came across a long-ago murder of two young men in Brontës Moor, who had been found shot there.
The film music was composed by Dustin O'Halloran and Adam Wiltzie . David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter says that the economical use of music underscores the film, which is poor in dialogue and gets along with few complex characters. IndieWire's Jude Dry also notes the extensive absence of music in the film, which uses many moments of total silence, and describes that the use of background music is limited to selected scenes, such as one in which Gheorghe asks Johnny for the prospect Enjoying the country and saying: “It's beautiful here, but lonely, isn't it?” The film's credits include colored vintage recordings of harvest work, which are underlaid with a new recording of The Days by British singer and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Wolf .
publication
The film premiered on January 23, 2017 as part of the Sundance Film Festival . At the 67th Berlinale , the film was shown in the Panorama section from February 11, 2017 and was also presented here as part of the Teddy Awards , a separate competition. As part of the Seattle International Film Festival is God's Own Country will be shown in June 2017 in the section Contemporary World Cinema. Also in June 2017, God's Own Country opened the Edinburgh International Film Festival and was shown at the Sydney Film Festival . From June 30, 2017, the film was presented at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival and shown again in Berlin in July 2017 as part of the Summer Berlinale. In October 2017 the film was presented at the Queer Film Festival Munich. Orion Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films secured the US rights to the film. A cinema release in the United Kingdom took place on September 1, 2017. On October 26, 2017, the film was released in German cinemas. On July 19, 2018, the film celebrated its free TV premiere in Germany at RBB. The film will be available on Netflix from May 1, 2019 .
synchronization
The German synchronization was carried out by Berliner Synchron GmbH Wenzel Lüdecke based on a dialogue book and directed by Marc Boettcher . Simon Derksen speaks Johnny Saxby, and Alexander Doering lends his voice to Gheorghe Ionescu. Martin Saxby will be dubbed by Gerald Schaale and Deidre Saxby by Sabine Walkenbach .
reception
Age rating
In Germany the film is FSK 12 . The statement of reasons for the release states: “The film is mostly told calmly and depicts the living conditions of the family in all harshness. The initially oppressive atmosphere and individual depictions of violence can overwhelm children under the age of 12. However, since the staging is never voyeuristic, even isolated sex scenes are presented very discreetly and the atmosphere brightens up in the course of the action and the relationship between the two boys is portrayed in an emotionally empathic manner, 12-year-olds can distance themselves sufficiently and discuss the topics of growing up and that Reflect on your own first falling in love. "
Reviews
The film has so far won over 98 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics and received an average rating of 8 out of a possible 10 points.
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian describes the film as a very British love story of its kind, telling of unspoken feelings and fears about the future and of trying to displace them through hard physical work. Bradshaw compares the film with Wuthering Heights by Andrea Arnold and other films, which showed that the local landscape is not only a picturesque and boring place.
TheWrap's Dan Callahan is reminded of the movie Brokeback Mountain because Lee describes a cautious homosexual love among men, which he established in the midst of sheep and a lonely landscape.
Hans Schifferle from epd Film also thinks that the film oscillates between Brokeback Mountain and the TV format Bauer sucht Frau , and in some beautiful scenes that are a little reminiscent of Michael Powell films , Lee shows an almost magical, fairytale understanding of nature, in where love, landscape and light form a unity. Schifferle sums up: “Lee's film is queer cinema of naturalness. After all the struggle, with all the fighting, being gay is almost a matter of course in such a conservative, almost archaic area. This cross-border love between Gheorghe and Johnny is vital to Yorkshire, agriculture and the salvation of men. "
When it comes to the frequent comparison with Brokeback Mountain, Oliver Kaever from Spiegel Online thinks that the parallels may seem obvious, but actually stop with the sexual orientation of the main characters: “In a direct duel, God's Own Country would leave the field as the clear winner. Which is mainly due to the fact that Francis Lee does not choose the tone of the larger-than-life drama for his story like namesake Ang and thus approximates it, but develops it completely from the everyday life of its main characters. "
Awards
The film was nominated in eleven categories for the British Independent Film Awards in early November 2017 . The following list contains a selection of the most famous award ceremonies.
British Academy Film Awards 2018
- Nomination for Best British Film ( Francis Lee , Manon Ardisson and Jack Tarling )
British Independent Film Awards 2017
- Award for Best British Independent Film
- Nomination for Best Screenplay (Francis Lee)
- Nomination for Best Director (Francis Lee)
- Award as Best Actor ( Josh O'Connor )
- Nomination for Best Actor ( Alec Secareanu )
- Nomination for Best Supporting Actor ( Ian Hart )
- Nomination for Best Directing Debut (Douglas Hickox Award)
- Award for Best First Screenplay (Francis Lee)
- Nomination for Best Young Producers (Jack Tarling and Manon Ardisson)
- Nomination for Best Casting (Shaheen Baig and Layla Merrick-Wolf)
- Nomination for Best Sound (Anna Bertmark)
- Award for the best sound (Anna Bertmark)
Dublin Film Critics' Circle Awards 2017
- Nomination for best film
Edinburgh International Film Festival 2017
- Award as British Best Picture with the Michael Powell Award
Evening Standard British Film Awards 2018
- Award as Best Picture with the Everyman Award
- Award for Best Supporting Actress ( Gemma Jones )
- Nomination for Best Supporting Actor (Ian Hart)
- Nomination in the Breakthrough of the Year category (Josh O'Connor)
- Nomination in the Breakthrough of the Year category (Francis Lee)
Stockholm International Film Festival 2017
- Award for Best Director (Francis Lee)
- Award as Best Actor (Josh O'Connor)
London Critics' Circle Film Awards 2018
- Nomination for film of the year
- Nomination for British / Irish Film of the Year
- Award as Breakthrough British / Irish Film Maker of the Year (Francis Lee)
- Nomination for Best British Actor (Josh O'Connor)
- Nomination for Best Cinematography ( Joshua James Richards )
San Francisco International Film Festival 2017
- Nomination for the Golden Gate Award New Directors Prize - Narrative films (Francis Lee)
- Nomination for best film
- Nomination in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition
- Award for Best Director with the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award (Francis Lee)
- Received the Directing Award in the World Cinema Dramatic (Francis Lee)
Teddy Award 2017
- Nomination for best feature film
- Received the men's jury award
- Award with the Harvey-Men readers Award (Francis Lee)
Web links
- God's Own Country in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- God's Own Country in the German dubbing index
- God's Own Country - Official Film Website (English)
- God's Own Country - Trailer from Edition Salzgeber on Youtube (Video)
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Release for God's Own Country . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 172030 / K).
- ^ Yorkshire Facts - Interesting and Unusual In: godsowncounty.co.uk, January 14, 2016.
- ↑ a b God's Own Country In: berlinale.de. Retrieved February 4, 2017.
- ↑ Booklet for the film's Blu-Ray
- ↑ Interview With GOD'S OWN COUNTRY Director Francis Lee. August 17, 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ Interview With GOD'S OWN COUNTRY Director Francis Lee. August 17, 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ Booklet for the film's Blu-Ray
- ↑ God's Own Country (2017) - IMDb. Retrieved July 2, 2019 .
- ↑ Interview With GOD'S OWN COUNTRY Director Francis Lee. August 17, 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ How Yorkshire's answer to Brokeback Mountain became the toast of the Sundance Film Festival In: yorkshirepost.co.uk, January 25, 2017.
- ↑ God's Own Country In: twitter.com, August 16, 2016.
- ↑ Fionnuala Halligan: 'God's Own Country': Sundance Review In: screendaily.com, January 21, 2017.
- ↑ Alistair Shand: Film shot in Keighley and Haworth wins coveted award In: thetelegraphandargus.co.uk, February 3, 2017.
- ^ Sibylle Cramer : Life attempts, types of death. The novel about the life of the Brontë family In: Die Zeit, December 27, 1985.
- ^ Till Lindemann: Tristes Leben, strong cinema: The new British social realism. In: epd Film, April 23, 2019.
- ↑ The Brontë 'moors, Haworth, West Yorkshire In: The Guardian, June 6th of 2009.
- ↑ Awake and wild in a joyless world SPIEGEL editor Gunar Ortlepp on Elsemarie Maletzke: 'Das Leben der Brontes' In: Der Spiegel, December 12, 1988.
- ↑ Storm Heights of Literature : Die Welt, March 17, 2007.
- ^ Ed Frankl: 'God's Own Country'. Berlin 2017 Review In. thefilmstage.com, February 13, 2017.
- ↑ God's Own Country In: twitter.com, July 8, 2016.
- ↑ A Winged Victory for the Sullen Scoring Francis Lee's 'God's Own Country' In: filmmusicreporter.com, January 21, 2017.
- ↑ David Rooney: 'God's Own Country': Film Review | Sundance 2017 In: The Hollywood Reporter, Jan 21, 2017.
- ↑ Jude Dry: 'God's Own Country' Review: A British 'Brokeback Mountain,' But Better - Sundance 2017 In: indiewire.com, January 25, 2017.
- ↑ David Rooney, 'God's Own Country': Film Review In: The Hollywood Reporter, January 21, 2017.
- ↑ 2017 Sundance Film Festival Printable Film Guide In: sundance.org. Retrieved January 19, 2017 (PDF; 17.8 MB)
- ↑ 31st Teddy Award. Program Guide In: teddyaward.tv. Retrieved February 18, 2017 (PDF; 6 MB)
- ^ Johanna Mitz: All films at the 31st Teddy Award In: teddyaward.tv, January 31, 2017.
- ↑ Film programs and competitions: Contemporary World Cinema ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: siff.net. Retrieved May 18, 2017.
- ↑ God's Own Country to open Edinburgh Film Festival In: bbc.co.uk, May 9, 2017.
- ↑ God's Own Country In: kviff.com. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
- ↑ Summer Berlinale shows favorites of the festival In: bbv-net.de, July 19, 2017.
- ↑ 2. Queer Film Festival Munich In: qffm.de. Retrieved October 29, 2017 (PDF)
- ↑ Nancy Tartaglione: Helen Mirren To Receive Monte Carlo's Crystal Nymph; Edinburgh Film Fest Sets Opener - Global Briefs In: deadline.com, May 9, 2017.
- ↑ New on Netflix: The Series & Film Highlights in May 2019. In: chip.de, April 27, 2019.
- ↑ Reasons for approval for God's Own Country In: Voluntary Self-Control of the Film Industry. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
- ↑ God's Own Country. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
- ↑ Peter Bradshaw: God's Own Country review - Dales answer to Brokeback that's a very British love story In: The Guardian, January 22, 2017.
- ↑ Dan Callahan: 'God's Own Country' Sundance Review: Period Gay Love Story Falls Apart In: thewrap.com, January 21, 2017.
- ↑ Hans Schifferle: Review of 'God's Own Country' In: epd Film.
- ↑ Oliver Kaever: Great cinema from England: Build fences, find love. In: Spiegel Online . October 26, 2017, accessed June 10, 2018 .
- ↑ New Talent Nominations 2017 In: bifa.film, November 1, 2017.
- ↑ Peter White: 'The Death Of Stalin' Wins Three British Independent Film Awards In: deadline.com, November 23, 2017.
- ↑ The Dublin Film Critics' Circle Awards announced for 2017 In: ifi.ie. Retrieved December 23, 2017.
- ^ Gavin Docherty: Edinburgh film festival winners named In: express.co.uk, June 30, 2017.
- ^ Robert Dex: Discover all the nominations for this year's Evening Standard British Film Awards In: Evening Standard, January 12, 2018.
- ↑ Award Winners at the Stockholm 28th International Film Festival ( Memento of the original from November 21, 2017 in the web archive archive.today ) 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. In: stockholmfilmfestival.se, November 20, 2017.
- ↑ Dino-Ray Ramos: 'Three Billboards' Wins Film Of The Year At London Critics' Circle Awards In: deadline.com, January 28, 2018.
- ↑ Festival Competition ( Memento of the original from May 8, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: sffilm.org. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
- ↑ Steve Pond: 'Dunkirk', 'The Shape of Water' Lead Satellite Award Nominations In: thewrap.com, November 29, 2017.
- ↑ Dominic Patten and Patrick Hipes: Sundance Film Festival Awards: 'I Don't Feel At Home In This World Anymore' & 'Dina' Take Grand Jury Prizes In: deadline.com, January 28, 2017.
- ↑ 31st Teddy Award - The Queer Film Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. The winners In: teddyaward.tv, February 17, 2017. (PDF; 12 kB)
