Hear the silence

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Movie
Original title Hear the silence
Country of production Germany / Poland
original language German
Publishing year 2016
length 94 minutes
Rod
Director Ed Ehrenberg
script Axel Melzener , Julia Peters, Ed Ehrenberg
production Monoloco Films, Redzone Pictures, Eyesbear Entertainment, Munich Film Academy
music Tonbüro GmbH, Eike Hosenfeld, Tim Stanzel
camera Ludwig Franz (BVK)
cut Jan-Timo Sonnemann
occupation
  • Lars Doppler: Lieutenant Markus Wenzel
  • Vera Stadler: Katja Kirchner
  • Simon Hangartner: Private Ludwig Nössel
  • Antonia Langenohl: Ursula Wagner
  • Andreas Zahn: Private Rudi Birke
  • Emma Jane : Hilde Reiter
  • Dominik Fenster: Private Karl Schulz
  • Clarissa Molocher: Martha Hoffmann
  • Andreas Erb: Private Willi Grimm
  • Marina Koch: Anna Hoffmann
  • Maximilian Grüneisen: Private Heinz Kracht
  • Ana Sanchez: Vera Fischer
  • Oliver Troska : Private Gerhard Feldberg
  • Jessica Reichert: Gerda Fischer
  • Andreas Wilke: Private Christian Moos
  • Alexandra Grant: Helga Kirchner
  • Mathias Horn: Private Fritz Leier
  • Christa Schreiber: Eva Wagner
  • David Jobda: Private Jochen Döbelin

Hear the Silence ( Hear the Silence ) is a German feature film. It celebrates its world premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival 2016 and is nominated in the competition for the Golden Goblet .

action

Ukraine in October 1941 : German soldiers arrive in a small town under the command of Lieutenant Wenzel . The soldiers were separated from their troops during a battle and are far away from German units behind enemy lines and have to procure food and transport. Only women and children and a few old men still live in the village. Since the population is Russian- Germans, all other men were deported or murdered.

After all weapons were confiscated by the Germans and a wounded soldier was taken care of by some residents, they moved into a hut as their quarters. On the first night the children were separated from their mothers to commit acts of sabotage and the like. to prevent the like. After a short time, however, the Germans realize that the residents feel positive about them and that mutual distrust is disappearing. Only Martha sees the Germans as enemies and is therefore locked up by another villager so as not to endanger the village community.

During a boozy evening, Lieutenant Wenzel and a villager get closer, and oral sex ensues . For no apparent reason, Wenzel strangles the woman, which is observed by the freed Martha. When Wenzel notices this, he pursues Martha and is killed by her with a pitchfork . Then she hides the body in the adjacent forest. The soldiers noticed Wenceslas' absence, but did not pursue them further for the time being.

The next morning, as agreed, the soldiers are ready to march and wait in vain for Wenzel. They find traces of blood and finally Wenceslas's body in the forest. Back in town, the soldiers split up and try to find the culprit, partly through torture. A villager, scared to death, accuses another, although she does not know the real perpetrator. The soldiers then want to make an example of her and hang her on a chair on a tree. However, at first none of the soldiers, who are now self-appointed by the fanatical Private Nössel, but are not accepted by the others, dares to knock down the chair in order to carry out the execution .

Shortly before the execution, a soldier is shot by Martha and a battle breaks out between the soldiers and most of the villagers. At the end of this battle, in which there are numerous dead on both sides, the last remaining Germans want to make their way back to the front. Two wounded have to be left behind, but one of the villagers, who was not involved in the previous battle and took care of the wounded soldiers, offers the soldiers from the previous day the remaining stew as provisions. The suspicious soldiers demand a self-tasting, whereby the villager dies. A soldier who also made a hasty cost also dies.

The three remaining soldiers flee, but continue to be shot at by the last villagers. In a quarrel between the two soldiers and Nössel, Nössel is killed, the other two manage to escape. The two soldiers escape, but one who is badly wounded dies not far from the village. Shortly before his death, he hands over his diary to his comrade and makes him promise that he will not cover up the deeds of the past few hours. Meanwhile, the Red Arms marched into the village. Of the villagers, only one woman and a few children survived.

In the last scene the only surviving soldier can be seen tearing out pages from the diary and burning them in a fire.

background

The project was originally planned as a graduation film for the acting graduates of the Munich Film Academy . When the material was brought to the production companies Monoloco Films and Redzone Pictures, it was turned into a feature film in 2012 and 2013. The privately financed independent project was filmed in Poland on the border with Ukraine, in the open-air museum of folk architecture in Sanok at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains. The small film crew and the twenty young actors lived together in a very confined space for seven weeks. Due to the tight budget, the tasks of the costume, the equipment and the catering were divided among each other and thus dealt with jointly. The mayor, the police chief and the people of Sanok supported the team during the shooting.

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