Kilimanjaro - Journey into Life

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Movie
Original title Kilimanjaro -
Journey into Life
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2017
length 88 minutes
Rod
Director Gregor Schnitzler
script Marco Rossi
production Ariane Krampe Filmproduktion GmbH
music Christopher Bremus
camera Wolfgang Aichholzer
cut Georg Soering
occupation

Kilimanjaro - Reise ins Leben is a German adventure film by Gregor Schnitzler from 2017. The film drama is based on a script by the author Marco Rossi and tells the fictional story of a group of German tourists, consisting of the sick doctor Anna Kobek (played by Anna Maria Mühe ), the wheelchair user Tom Färber ( Kostja Ullmann ) and the quarreling father-daughter team Joschka Wagner ( Simon Schwarz ) and Paula Herfordt ( Caroline Hartig ) who, accompanied by the mountain guides Simon ( Ulrich Brandhoff ) and Joseph (Bongo Mbutuma), climb the summit the Kilimanjaro want to achieve.

The film advertised being "a drama about a journey to oneself" and the title line: "Four climbers, four goals, one ascent that changes everyone."

action

The surgeon Anna Kobek is on her way to Tanzania. She booked a tour to climb Kilimanjaro . Anna has left her little daughter, with whom she Skyps several times , with her mother. The girl gave her mother a stone with an angel drawn in a childish manner, which Anna should put on the kibo . At the airport, the doctor makes the acquaintance of Joschka Wagner, who notices her uncomfortably. He has the same goal as Anna. Once at the lodge , Simon Egger, your mountain guide, introduces himself to you. Paula Herfordt arrived a day earlier, who, to the surprise of the others, is Joschka Wagner's daughter. However, the meeting with her father immediately triggers an escape reflex in Paula with the decision to no longer take part in the tour. One participant is still missing, as Simon explains, he is expected shortly. When Tom Färber arrives and the group members see that he is sitting in a wheelchair, Anna's reaction in particular is not very friendly. Färber is a former extreme athlete who took part in the triathlon seven times and won the Ironman competition three times . Simon takes Tom aside and tells him that he has never led anyone in a wheelchair onto the Kibo. Tom replies that of course he also wants to prove something, but above all that he wants to encourage other wheelchair users, because he will write a book about the tour to show that boundaries only exist in the head. He is sure that he can make the way to the summit without outside help.

After Paula is on the way to the airport with the local mountain guide Joseph, Simon announces that the easiest route to take is via the Marangu Gate . But even this is no walk in the park, because the area of ​​Kilimanjaro is unique in its composition, a whole world in miniature with jungle, stone desert, bush steppe, rocky mountains, snow fields, exotic plants and wild animals. When the group queues up in the national park the next day to start the tour, Paula joins them again. A drawing she made herself as a child with an elephant in the center and the words: “Dear Papa, you said for my birthday I have one wish. I want to hike Kilimanjaro. Your Paulinchen ”moved the young woman to return. Her father had given her the drawing shortly before she left.

The first route of three sections is designed without any special incidents. In the overnight camp, Simon speaks to Paula about her falling out with her father. Living with him was difficult because he knew, saw and could do everything. Their relationship finally broke up when her father had sex with her best friend in her bed on her birthday. Simon replies that it could well be that two people feel attracted to each other, although that is taboo. He slept with the great love of his best friend. Before he could tell him, he crashed into a rock face.

In the second part of the tour, Tom and Anna are at the head of the group when Tom asks Anna for help because he urgently needs. The young woman followed his request that she had to hold him, slightly disgusted. Quite surprisingly, a cheetah emerges from the bush shortly afterwards. Simon approaches with the group. When Tom shrinks back in shock, he falls over with the wheelchair. Simon lights a smoke candle and can drive the cheetah away. When Simon announces a waterfall as he walks on, Joschka hurries ahead and unceremoniously plunges into the water. Simon thinks he is bathing in a cemetery because the Chagga would bury their leprosy dead here, which is a horror for Joschka. Joseph says he tells this story on every tour.

The next day it rains incessantly, which doesn't make it any easier to get ahead - especially for Tom. As the path gets steeper, a chain breaks on his wheelchair, which then starts moving backwards. Tom is thrown out and remains injured. He is brought to the camp on a stretcher and examined by Anna. His arm has to be splinted, the wheelchair can no longer be used.

That evening there was a dispute between Anna and Tom, who said his girlfriend, a model, probably suffered from mancophilia and raised the question of what if she wanted a child. Tom then leaves without a word. The next evening Tom carries Anna with her rucksack, which he falls down. His gaze falls on a doctor's letter. Anna then tells Tom that she has a bilateral tumor in her head that is pressing on the optic nerve. She probably hopes for a miracle, as she did with her mother who, contrary to all expectations, got well after a tour on the Kibo, says Tom. The worst thing for her is the idea that after an operation she might no longer be able to accompany the development of her child or that her daughter might even have to grow up without a mother, Anna replies.

The next day, when Simon wants to put a boulder with a memorial plaque for his fallen friend Max at the crash site, he leaves Paula and her father alone and inoculates both of them to wait right there, he'll be back shortly. When Paula does not obey this order, a dangerous situation arises when, after a verbal argument with her father, she loses her footing and slides over the edge of the rock. Only with difficulty can she cling to a crevice, rigid with fear. Joschka tries to climb down to help his daughter. At the last moment, Joseph and a porter rescue both of them from their dangerous position.

The other day Paula has massive circulatory problems and has to lie down. Anna tells Simon that she really wanted to go to the top of Kibo, but now it feels kind of wrong without Tom. Tom had confessed that his girlfriend was now with a soccer player and was expecting a child. Anna and Joschka offer Joseph to pay him the engineering degree he has dreamed of if he tries to make Tom's wheelchair roadworthy again. Joseph refuses the money, but converts the wheelchair so that Tom can reach the summit of Kibo with the help of the others. There is a clarifying conversation between Joschka and his daughter. As the group set off, you miss Joschka, who steps out of the hut door at the same moment, followed by Paula. When Anna asks whether she is sure, she says yes, she really wants to go to the summit. After a strenuous tour, they step onto the Kibo plateau, a rocky hill on which there is a wooden scaffold with several boards, one of which reads in English: “Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest point. Congratulations. ”Everyone hugs everyone. Anna puts her daughter's stone on one of the tablets. The moment is captured with Paula's camera when everyone is cheering and stretching their arms up.

Afterword, spoken by Tom Färber

“The way to Kilimanjaro was a borderline experience for all of us that changed our lives extremely. Simon, who came to terms with his past, did not last long in Germany. He now lives in Argentina, where he leads tourists up the 6,000 m high Aconcagua . Paula and Joschka are still rarely of the same opinion, but one thing they are sure of: the Kibo was not the last mountain they climbed together. The operation cost Anna part of her eyesight, but she has come to terms with her fate. Today she teaches students with passion and, as she says, amazing patience. Yes, and I, I actually wrote a book for people who want to go beyond their limits and who don't let anything or anyone discourage them on this path. "

production

Filming locations, production notes

The highest mountain on the African continent, Kilimanjaro , one of the main locations and central theme of the film.

Kilimanjaro - Journey into Life was filmed from January 25 to February 22, 2017 under the working title The Way to Kilimanjaro at locations in the South African city of Cape Town , Tanzania and on Kilimanjaro . Rainer Tittelbach wrote in his review: “How thin the line is between magic and kitsch is shown by the digital image processing of the preliminary version, which was available to journalists. The sun and light in the rainforest take on almost surreal features, and the piled-up rain clouds also seem a tad too artificial - so that at some point you ask yourself what and how much is actually real here? ”It is gratifying that in the film there are“ almost no ' exhibited nature '”. It is to be hoped that “the final version will also give an impression” of “the sensual, transcendent fascination of Kilimanjaro”, since it was not filmed at the original locations in Tanzania, but in the logistically much better developed film country of South Africa ”.

Ariane Krampe and her Ariane Krampe Filmproduktion GmbH acted as the producer of the film . The film was made with the support of the Ministry of Trade and Industry of South Africa with the indication that one is not responsible for the content. It is an official co-production of South Africa and Germany, produced with the support of nfvf on behalf of ARD-Degeto for Das Erste . In one scene of the film, the character Paula Herfordt, played by Caroline Hartig, mentions that the story Snow on Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway was the first that she had read without her father having chewed everything up for her and with which she finally got hers could develop my own thoughts.

For Kostja Ullmann it is not the first time that he has played a disabled person. In the movie My Blind Date with Life from the same year, he played an almost completely blind bartender. Anna Maria Mühe was also cast in the film. In the film drama Die Zeit, which one calls life , Kostja Ullmann played a young man sitting in a wheelchair in 2008. In all of the films he meticulously prepared for his respective role.

publication

The premiere of the film took place on 17 November 2017 First for prime time instead. In Italy the film was released under the title Viaggio sul Kilimangiaro .

According to Prisma , the film "marks the beginning of a new ARD Degeto series" in which people "face an adventure". Wolfgang Platzeck stated in the Berliner Morgenpost : "The new ARD Friday series 'Journey into Life' begins with the drama 'Kilimanjaro'."

reception

Audience rating

With a total of 4.11 million viewers and a 13.7 percent market share, the drama behind the television series Ein Fall für Zwei became the second most- watched program of the day. In the advertising-relevant target group of 14 to 49 year olds, 0.53 million viewers tuned in; this resulted in a market share of 5.6 percent.

criticism

Leading actress Anna Maria Mühe , who played Anna, received positive reviews for her play.

“Screenwriter Marco Rossi created a not uninteresting group. The mix of psychological, illness, friendship and family stories doesn't seem overly thought out in the context of the subject, ”said Tilmann P. Gangloff in his review for Tittelbach.tv . On the other hand, “the depth of the story is limited. And so effectively the dramaturgy of the same five heroes travel is so predictable are the moral turning points and learning processes. "The fact that the plot is not the Moralinsaure certainly cant, was" also a credit to the actor, "especially effort and Ullman. The film received four stars out of six.

Tilmann P. Gangloff described Kilimanjaro - Journey into Life in his review for the Frankfurter Rundschau as a “well-acted drama”, which, however, is more than a “drawing board product”. Rossi has “made people out of cliché figures. Played it is excellent throughout, especially since the group also works excellently as an ensemble. In addition, Rossi has just come up with a lot of biting dialogues for Mühe and Schwarz ”. Cinematographer Wolfgang Aichholzer ensures "splendid pictures, but in contrast to many comparable dramas Kilimanjaro is not a pretext film in which a story primarily serves to stage the landscape".

Thomas Klatt from the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung found the production to be a “beautiful story, but one that could basically take place anywhere in the world”. The plot offers "light entertainment" and is "conclusively told". What is more disturbing, however, is “the cliché picture. Blacks only appear in the 90 minutes or so as an application to complement the picture. On the drive from the airport to the hotel, two white tourists sit amidst locals drumming, singing and partying on the bus. 'Benjamin' sits at the entrance to the national park. This is an officer in uniform who of course speaks German. He has to be bribed so that the barrier is raised for the tour group with a wheelchair ”.

"There is a little bit much that comes together in this group: death, lies, disability and even a brain tumor," wrote Amelie Heinz of the television magazine Prisma . All of this “makes Gregor Schnitzler's film appear a little overloaded, although the shots that can be seen in Kilimanjaro - Journey into Life are truly spectacular [...] This type of film would definitely add a lot more value if one were to see the locals in it maybe two sentences in your national language could be said. One could certainly trust the viewers in the first with a few subtitles, and the authenticity of the story would be very beneficial if not every Tanzanian who scurried through the picture spoke fluent German ”.

The film service summarized its assessment as follows: "Set against an impressive backdrop (television) adventure drama with good actors, which is all too predictable in its acute crisis of self-discovery."

The film was TV tip of the day in the Hamburger Abendblatt . "The journey up the mountain is equated here with a journey into life - it's about overcoming the hurdles in your head," it said in the text. The film offers both “amusing” and “touching moments”. Kostja Ullmann plays Tom "as a cheeky and self-deprecating guy, while Anna Maria Mühe will soon have to shed the sarcasm of her film character - who has a brain tumor". Director Gregor Schnitzler [...] shows "many beautiful pictures of the beautiful mountain - but in such a way that it doesn't get too kitschy". Finally it says: “The film brings a lot together for a TV Friday evening - including dramatic accidents, a hissing cheetah and almost crashes. On the other hand, there is no love story, and so the whole thing is definitely better than some Schmonzette. "

Wolfgang Platzeck stated in the Berliner Morgenpost : “Beautiful people in front of a dreamlike backdrop: ARD once again takes viewers to distant countries. But the new Friday series 'Reise ins Leben' has little in common with relevant television films that look like tourism advertising. That doesn't mean that the passive long-distance traveler won't get their money's worth with the first episode 'Kilimanjaro'. "Platzeck praised:" Smart, extremely sensitive and, despite the occasional action scenes, almost in the tone of an intensive chamber play, 'Kilimanjaro' tells of a long-distance journey that ends very close: with your own self. ”His conclusion was accordingly positive:“ Wonderful actors in an extraordinary wanderlust film in which aspiration and high entertainment value are balanced. ”

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kilimanjaro - Journey into Life in the German Synchronized File
  2. ↑ Kilimanjaro - Journey into Life see page presse-partner-koeln.de
  3. ↑ a b c Kilimanjaro - Journey into life see page krampe-film.de
  4. ^ A b c Rainer Tittelbach: TV film "Kilimanjaro - Journey into Life". Trouble, Ullmann, Schwarz, Rossi, Schnitzler: five hero's journeys make up a group . Tittelbach.tv . Retrieved September 22, 2019.
  5. ↑ a b TV star Kostja Ullmann. In a wheelchair on Kilimanjaro In: Hamburger Morgenpost , November 18, 2017. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  6. ↑ Kilimanjaro - Journey into Life Fig. Image in DasErste with the actors Caroline Hartig, Simon Schwarz, Ulrich Brandhoff, Anna Maria Mühe, Bongo Mbutuma and in front Kostja Ullmann in the IMDb
  7. ↑ a b Amelie Heinz: Kilimanjaro - Journey into Life. Self-discovery drama at an altitude of 6000 meters . Prism . Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  8. ↑ a b ARD drama “Kilimanjaro”: A journey to one's own self. In: Berliner Morgenpost, November 17, 2017. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  9. ↑ Marcel Pohlig: ARD film is convincing and comes close to the ZDF crime thrillers . dwdl.de . Retrieved September 22, 2019.
  10. ^ Tilmann P. Gangloff: Obstacles only exist in the head . Frankfurter Rundschau , November 17, 2017. Accessed February 20, 2019.
  11. ↑ Thomas Klatt: Light entertainment: "Kilimanjaro - Journey into Life" . Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung , November 17, 2017. Accessed October 17, 2019.
  12. ↑ Kilimanjaro - Journey into Life. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 22, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  13. ↑ TV tip Kilimanjaro - Journey into Life In: Hamburger Abendblatt , November 17, 2017. Accessed October 17, 2019.