Haven (2004)

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Movie
German title Haven
Original title Haven
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 2004
length 99 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Frank E. Flowers
script Frank E. Flowers
production Robbie Brenner
Bob Yari
music Heitor Pereira
camera Michael Bernard
cut Peter Christelis
occupation
synchronization

Haven is a 2004 British film by director Frank E. Flowers set in the British offshore financial center of the Cayman Islands . Frank E. Flowers, who was born and raised in the Cayman Islands, also wrote the screenplay. Orlando Bloom first took part as a co-producer and was seen in one of the leading roles. The shooting took place exclusively in the Cayman Islands. The film premiered at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival . It was shown in selected cinemas in the USA from September 15, 2006.

The film shows how initially unrelated people meet and their interactions lead to a chain of acts of violence that plunges the Caribbean archipelago from tranquility into chaos.

action

The American businessman Carl Ridley has transferred a large part of his personal wealth to the Cayman Islands without the tax. His financial advisor Allen is being pressured by US Treasury officials into dealing with the financial investigators and denouncing his client Ridley on them. Ridley's secretary, who accidentally overhears a phone call from her boss to the tax authorities, warns him by faxing him about the investigators on the way to his property in Miami . Carl Ridley then collects the most important documents and hastily leaves the country with his 18-year-old daughter Pippa to flee to the Cayman Islands. Pippa regrets turning her back on her friends and her comfortable life in Miami.

But after arriving in the Cayman Islands, Carl Ridley has little time to deal with his daughter's worries. He tries to get his money safe and to reach his financial advisor. In the meantime, Pippa makes the acquaintance of Fritz, a local her age who goes about dubious business and has top priority for going to parties. Because he destroyed an expensive sports car belonging to gang leader Richie Ritch in a traffic accident, he is deep in the chalk with the gangster. When Fritz sees through a crack in the door how Carl Ridley unwraps bundles of notes that he tied around his body while fleeing the USA, he senses the chance to pay off his debts to Richie Rich by tipping him to Carl Ridley ambushed at his home.

Shy, also a native of the Caribbean island, is employed by the boat rental company Sterling and loves his daughter Andrea. Sterling, a politically influential man, is unaware of his daughter's affair. Andreas brother Hammer suspects the secret affair and has strong resentment towards Shy. While Shy visits his girlfriend, his good friend Kimo waits in front of the house to warn him when Andrea's father returns. So also on the night when Andrea celebrates her 18th birthday and has sex with Shy. Unfortunately, Kimo falls asleep waiting in front of the house while Andrea and Shy are also deeply asleep in the house. Shy manages to escape from the window at the last moment, but Hammer recognizes him. In order to get revenge on Shy for his supposed rape of Andrea, Hammer attacks the attractive Shy and burns the left half of his face. Hammer is then sentenced to four months in prison, while Shy's scars remain forever.

Shy withdraws after this act and avoids his friends and the public. Andrea breaks emotionally when her father persuades her that Shy raped her. Andrea then takes refuge in excessive alcohol consumption and anonymous sex. One evening Shy and a good friend Patrick, whose father works as a financial advisor to Carl Ridley, go to Richie Rich's party, where he meets Andrea. When Shy sees his childhood sweetheart in the toilet having sex with a stranger, he runs into the front yard of the property, where he vomits. Andrea follows him to calm him down, but Shy rejects her because she is under the influence of drugs. Andreas' brother Hammer sees Shy and beats him up with the help of his friends until Shy finally fled.

Pippa accompanied her new friend Fritz to the same party. While Pippa is using drugs with some girls, Fritz tells the host Richie about the money he saw with Pippa's father. Richie is initially not convinced that Fritz is telling him the truth and that the promised amounts of money can actually be obtained from Carl Ridley. Nevertheless, he and two other gang members make their way to Carl Ridley. Meanwhile, Fritz brings Pippa, who is under the influence of drugs, who originally wanted to go home, onto a boat owned by Mr. Sterling. However, Richie and his two gang members do not find the money they are looking for at Ridley. When they broke into Mr. Sterling's yacht, Fritz and Pippa set off the silent alarm. After a short time, the alerted police arrive at the port and take them into custody. Pippa is taken to the police station, while Fritz is taken to an empty laundromat at night, where he is beaten by a police officer.

Shy meanwhile got himself a gun and returns to the party where he meets Hammer again. He fired several shots in the air, so that the other party guests run away, only Hammer remains unarmed. Shy blames Hammer for being responsible for his sister's life out of joint. Even while walking, he explains to Hammer that he is sparing his life so that he can follow the physical and social decline of his sister that he has caused. When Hammer replies that she prefers Andrea to act like a whore than to be friends with Shy, Shy turns around and fires fatal shots at Hammer, who dies on the spot. When he realizes what he has done, he deeply regrets what he did and runs away.

In the next few hours, Andrea, supported by Patrick, goes looking for Shy. When the two verbally clash over the changes in Andreas' life, Patrick throws her out of his car, but reveals to her that he suspects that Shy will be found at the docks. In fact, she finds Shy there, reveals her love to him and tells him that she wants to spend her life with him. However, when Shy confesses to having killed her brother, she leaves him alone.

In the morning hours of that eventful night, Ridley visits his financial advisor, Allen. He tells him that he is carrying a million dollars in a gym bag that he must keep safe. Ridley offers everyone to lock the money in his safe. The two men make their way to the police station, where Pippa is waiting for her father. He is also expected by agents from the FBI who handcuff him away. But Ridley has already seen through Allen's plans and taken precautions. As soon as Allen has returned to his house, he opens his safe to find that the gym bag does not contain the money he was hoping for, but sand and a large shell. Pippa, on the other hand, finds the money under the mattress of her bed.

While Andrea and her father prepare for her brother Hammer's funeral, Kimo comforts his friend Shy's mother. At the jetty where Shy was left behind by Andrea, Shy boarded his little boat to cut the line, start the engine and sink his murder weapon in the ocean.

background

Haven was shot exclusively in the Cayman Islands . The shooting took place in November 2003. Frank E. Flowers originally had no plans to direct the film himself, but was encouraged to do so by John Singleton, one of his college teachers. On September 11, 2004, the film celebrated its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival . The film initially received devastating festival reviews, which is why it was cut several times. On September 15, 2006, the film finally ran in selected US cinemas. In Germany the film was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on May 19, 2009 on DVD with an FSK-16 rating. The subtitle of the film is “Can love survive the fall of paradise?” . US cinemas grossed over 130,000 US dollars .

German dubbed version

actor German speaker role
Orlando Bloom Philipp Moog Shy
Zoë Saldaña Andrea Wick Andrea
Bill Paxton Frank Röth Carl Ridley
Victor Rasuk Stefan Günther Fritz
Santiago Cabrera Philipp Brammer Genes
Mpho Koaho Benedikt Gutjan Kimo
Bobby Cannavale Alexander Brem Lieutenant
Stephen Dillane Hans-Georg Panczak Mr. Allen
Robert Wisdom Thomas Albus Mr. Sterling
Serena Scott Thomas Elisabeth Günther Mrs. Allen
Caroline Goodall Dagmar Dempe Ms. Claire
Agnes Bruckner Gabrielle Pietermann Pippa Ridley
Razaaq Adoti Oliver Mink Richie rich
Joy Bryant Claudia Lössl Sheila
Kathrin Gaube Property manager

Soundtrack

A soundtrack on two CDs was released in 2006 by Superb Records , which includes 40 tracks.

CD 1

No. title Interpreter
1. Move! Damian Marley
2. Melancholy mood Ziggy Marley
3. Clouds Neuromance
4th Just Be Collén & Webb
5. Safe in Mind (please Get This Gun From Out My Face) UNKLE
6th Heaven Lamb
7th Here comes the night Native
8th. Latenightman Snypah aka Junior Ricketts
9. Ooh KansasCali
10. Non stop traffic FOUR
11. Gotta change my life Including from Fragment Crew
12. Blessed Are the Souls Heitor Pereira

CD 2

No. title
1. We're safe
2. The Feds Arrive
3. You've got a fax
4th We're All Dogs
5. Blessed Are the Souls
6th Raped Her?
7th Carl Talks to Pipa
8th. The roundabout
9. Lover's Night
10. The Red Room
11. Just memories
12. Police station
13. Poor sufferers
14th Fritz Nightmare
15th The Way Home
16. Feds Arrive (Version 1)
17th Love on the Beach (Version 1)
19th Busted
20th Innocence Lost (Version 1)
21st Let's Roll (Version 1)
22nd A good team
23. The Morning After (Version 1)
24. The hiding place
25th Shy's Daydream (Version 1)
26th Schoolyard Fight (Version 1)
27. Lover's Night (Version 1)
28. Haven's Theme (Version 1)

reception

At Rotten Tomatoes , 13% positive out of a total of 62 reviews were counted.

According to the verdict of the Lexicon of International Films , Haven is a "dramatic film with thriller elements that does not harmonize the various storylines and only offers fragmentary work" . After all, it is a "film by a native Cayman island" .

Julian Unkel von Filmstarts rates Haven as an "atmospheric feature film debut" by Frank E. Flowers , "which combines elements from thriller, drama and romance, but gets quite tangled in its many storylines" . Although the film was cut several times after "initially devastating festival reviews" , it is still "far from a coherent narrative flow" . The “not chronologically” told story sets “the focus differently in each scene, especially in the middle part, so that the characters are deprived of any opportunity to develop credibly” . "This is particularly annoying with the character of Andrea, whose transformation from shy girl to sex-addicted drug wreck is just as unconvincing as her final catharsis" , although this is "the best acting performance" of the film by Zoë Saldaña despite all the criticism . The other actors "hardly have any positive accents" . "As weak as the narrative side of the film is, the visual design is just as convincing" , which shows the Cayman Islands "visually as a fantastically beautiful tropical idyll" and in this way creates a "very special atmosphere" . “The atmosphere is also very conducive to the original tone, which with its many dialects - from high-pitched Oxford English to deep patois - miraculously reflects the multiethnic flair of the islands.” “The soundtrack consisting of chillout and reggae sounds” turns out to be “a real plus point " . The film is a “style-over-substance staging” in which “behind the chic images” there is only “an unnecessarily fluffy tangle of run-of-the-mill plots with one-dimensional characters” . “Narrative” Pulp Fiction as well as Bube, Dame, König, grAS emulating, the film never achieves “the cleverness and the lively narrative rhythm of its role models” . Ultimately, it fails to "combine the many storylines into a functioning whole" .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Filmstarts : Filmkritik , accessed on August 13, 2013
  2. ↑ a b c d About.com: Exclusive Interview with Haven Writer / Director Frank E Flowers ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2007 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. , Rebecca Murray, accessed August 21, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / movies.about.com
  3. ↑ a b Internet Movie Database : Filming Locations
  4. ↑ a b c d Internet Movie Database : Start Dates
  5. ↑ a b Internet Movie Database : Budget and Box office income
  6. ↑ Haven. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on August 12, 2013 .
  7. ↑ Haven at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on August 13, 2013
  8. ↑ a b Haven. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 13, 2013 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 

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