Hanna's journey

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Movie
Original title Hanna's journey
Poster Hanna's journey.jpg
Country of production Germany , Israel
original language German , English , Hebrew
Publishing year 2013
length 100 minutes
Age rating FSK without age restriction
Rod
Director Julia from Heinz
script John Quester ,
Julia von Heinz
production Harry Flöter ,
Jörg Siepmann
music Matthias Petsche
camera Daniela Knapp
cut Florian Miosge
occupation

Hannas Reise is a German romantic comedy from 2013 by Julia von Heinz . The film is loosely based on the novel That Was the Good Part of the Day by Theresa Bäuerlein .

action

The ambitious Hanna lives with her boyfriend Alex in Berlin and is about to complete her business studies . In order to score points at an interview with social commitment, she lies about an allegedly imminent assignment with disabled people in Israel . Since her mother is in a leading position at the organization “Aktion Friedensdienste”, Hanna hopes to get a pro forma certificate from her. But her mother insists that she actually do the voluntary service, so Hanna flies to Tel Aviv for a stay of several months .

In Israel, Hanna lives in a shared flat with the other two volunteers Maja and Carsten. She works with the Israeli supervisor Itay in a handicapped village. On the one hand, he provokes her with Holocaust jokes, but also flirts with her. He actually wanted to move to Berlin with friends after his army service to open a club there, but after his brother's death he takes care of his brother's widow and daughter and is therefore forced to stay in Israel for the time being.

Over time, Hanna and Itay get to know each other and their hopes better and realize that even as a young person you “can't start from scratch”. In addition to the work in the disabled village, Hanna's voluntary service also includes regular visits to the old people's home with Holocaust survivor Gertraud Nussbaum. It turns out that Hanna's mother was already with her as a volunteer. From her, Hanna gradually learns more about the role of her grandparents in World War II and deals with her origins.

At the end of her voluntary service, Hanna's originally planned career is no longer so important, and she spontaneously decides at the airport to stay a few more days in Israel. She calls Itay, who is surprisingly in Berlin. It remains to be seen what happens afterwards.

background

The film was shot in October and November 2012 in Berlin and Tel Aviv. The film was supported by various German film funding agencies as well as by Israeli film funding. The premiere took place on August 27, 2013 as part of the World Film Festival in Montréal , the German theatrical release was on January 23, 2014.

Hanna's journey is the first leading role for Karoline Schuch in a movie.

reception

The film received mixed to positive reviews in the German press. Ariane Wälzer praised him for not telling a predictable love story:

“The director doesn't build a flat love story here to spice up the story. [...] The film tells of how life can mess up all your plans. And it raises questions [about] what German history is doing with the younger generation, how it affects our time. "

- NDR.de

Also mirror while -Rezensentin Kirsten Rießelmann sees weaknesses, gaining a feel of the director for her sensitive subject and its characters but also a lot of positives, and concludes:

“It is not a particularly original idea to stage a stay in Israel as a school of sensitivity. However, director and co-author Julia von Heinz succeeds in breaking down the intricate prejudices, projections and desires between Germans and Jewish Israelis with a lot of humor and confident figure drawing. "

- spiegel.de

Julia Teichmann noted in the film service that Hanna's character, like many members of the third post-war generation, “has no idea what their grandparents did during the war”, but in the course of the film credibly changed from being an unsympathetic career girl to a figure of identification:

“The dialogues are politically incorrect and realistic; the characters are carefully balanced down to the numerous secondary characters; everyday observations and seemingly incidental matters play an important role. The decals from the beginning are transformed into multi-layered, adaptive people. "

- film service

Zitty author Martin Schwarz finds the Israeli actor Doron Amit a real stroke of luck:

“It is also very impressive that Heinz leaves her main character credible. So Hanna does not have to mutate into a socially convinced perpetrator, but simply go through a certain change - and can still remain true to herself. In addition, the filmmaker gives a multi-layered insight into an immensely complicated country and the same relationship that Germans have with it. A discovery: Doron Amit as Itay - a young Israeli who really loves the camera. "

- zitty

The Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung particularly emphasizes the director's skillful approach to a difficult topic and summarizes:

"Such a relaxed and sarcastically cheeky feature film in the shadow of the Holocaust has rarely been seen, especially in a German-Israeli co-production."

- noz.de

The portal cinema takes a similar opinion , which also positively rates the impressive play of Karoline Schuch , who is known from several Tatort episodes and plays her first major leading role here:

“The fact that the film has nothing instructive, but rather informally tells of difficult approaches, is not only due to the clever script, but also to Karoline Schuch in her first major film role. (...) Conclusion: Refreshingly unobtrusive and sensitively played self-discovery story. "

- cinema

Other online sources also consider the work of the directors and actors to be decisive for the successful handling of the topic. This is what you can read on kino.de :

“As so many thinks (Hanna), the topic has already been dealt with exhaustively. (...) While the future career woman offends everyone, classifies her flatmates as 'reparation Germans' and dismisses a visit to a Holocaust survivor as an annoying must, she does not even notice how she is slowly facing the fragile magic of a country in constant tension he is lying (…). Julia von Heinz (German film award for 'Was am Ende sucht' and commercial success with 'Hanni and Nanni 2') manages (…) the difficult balancing act between humor and seriousness, past and present, between broken historiography and personal approach. When the open end of this love story says 'it stays complicated', it's not just about the relationship between Hanna and Itay, but also about the relationship between Germany and Israel (…). mk. "

- kino.de

However, it was also criticized that the film tries to cut too many topics and threatens to drift into clichés. For example, Cornelia Geissler writes:

“But too many problem boxes are opened too quickly and then closed again immediately. The dark spot in Hanna's family history, her search for absolution, appears to have been tinkered with. And Hanna's German contemporaries - whether the friend at home or the flatmate - look like caricatures. In a draw, the film vacillates between a drama with political concerns, a love story and dealing with a messed up mother-daughter relationship. "

- Frankfurter Rundschau

In Israel, too, the film received mostly positive reviews. Hannah Brown writes (translation from English):

“An interesting mix of comedy, social and political commentary and a love story. Amit's character Itay's entire commitment is to the adults he works with, and at first he can't do much with Hanna (Karoline Schuch), whom he sees as a would-be do-gooder who is as humorous as it is disoriented. But over time, their commitment and their desire to understand Israel compel him to show more and more respect. And she, in turn, is able to help him admit some difficult truths. "

- Jerusalem Post

The film also received positive reviews on the renowned Israeli blog Motke (translation from Hebrew):

“A young German's voyage of discovery to Israel, which initiates a process of maturation, described in a captivating and humorous way (...), sensitive, funny and intelligent. (...) Conclusion for the audience: You should definitely accompany Hanna on her trip. "

- Motke

Although Hanna's journey describes the influence of the Shoah on the present and on the second and third post-war generation, some negative reviews are reminiscent of the emotionally charged debates on Radu Mihăileanu and Roberto Benigni's controversial “Holocaust comedies” Train of Life ( 1998) and Life is Beautiful (1997), in which there was a heated argument about the extent to which it was even permissible to make the Shoah, the greatest human crime in history, the subject or background of a humorous narrative. (Ralf Krämer's review of Hanna's journey under the heading Are you allowed to joke about the Holocaust? Is a good example of this.) Like these films, Hanna's journey and director Julia von Heinz are confronted with accusations of superficiality.

Uri Klein confirms that the film lacks depth in dealing with what is actually a more complex subject:

“If it weren't for a hundred-minute fictional film, and if its main character weren't a non-Jewish woman, then 'Hanna's Journey' - a film by the German director Julia von Heinz - would be just one of those Zionist television infomercials in which Jews from all over the world describe their experiences when they come to Israel. The film has about as much depth as such films and its political intent is just as gross. "

- Haaretz

Review mirror

Positive:

Positive reviews on online portals:

Rather positive:

Neutral:

Rather negative:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Official press booklet for the film , pages 4 and 9. Accessed on February 18, 2014.
  2. ↑ Internet Movie Database : Start Dates . Retrieved February 18, 2014.
  3. ↑ NDR.de: New start in Israel - "Hanna's journey" ( Memento from January 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Spiegel.de: Movie "Hannas Reise": Israel as a career kick
  5. ↑ Julia Teichmann, “Hannas Reise: Spurwechsel in Israel. Refreshing comedy about German-Jewish gangs. ”In: Film-Dienst: Das Film-Magazin 02/2014. ISSN  0720-0781
  6. ↑ Martin Schwarz, "Hannas Reise." In: Zitty 03/2014. ISSN  0179-9606
  7. ↑ noz.de: "Hanna's Journey" by Julia von Heinz
  8. ↑ http://www.cinema.de/film/hannas-reise,5860089.html Hanna's journey
  9. ↑ http://www.kino.de/kinofilm/hannas-reise/121458 Hanna's journey
  10. ^ Frankfurter Rundschau: Film "Hanna's Journey": To Israel, because of her career
  11. ^ Jerusalem Post: Preparing for the role of a lifetime
  12. ^ Motke: Hanna's Journey.
  13. ↑ Is it allowed to joke about the Holocaust?
  14. ↑ Uri Klein: 'Hanna's Journey': As deep as a Zionist TV infomercial. In: Haaretz , June 13, 2014.