Child welfare (film)

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Movie
German title Child welfare
Original title The Children Act
Country of production Great Britain
original language English
Publishing year 2017
length 106 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Richard Eyre
script Ian McEwan
production Duncan Kenworthy
music Stephen Warbeck
camera Andrew Dunn
cut Dan Farrell
occupation

Kindwohl (Original title The Children Act ) is a British film drama by Richard Eyre , which celebrated its world premiere in September 2017 as part of the Toronto International Film Festival and was released in German cinemas on August 30, 2018. The film is based on the novel of the same name by the English writer Ian McEwan .

action

The shooting took place in the buildings of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, in the film the place of work of Fiona Maye

Only recently, family judge Fiona Maye, who serves on the High Court of Justice in London, had to decide whether to separate conjoined twins , which posed a thorny ethical issue because it meant the certain death of one of the children the other could live. Now she has to judge whether a 17-year-old Jehovah's Witness with leukemia can refuse a life-saving blood transfusion , which he, his parents and the community refuse for religious reasons.

Fiona fulfills her office with great passion, but her work comes at the expense of her marriage to her husband Jack, who is a professor. He and you neglect each other. They've been together for 30 years, have no children, and Jack knows their work always comes first. Because their love life has been asleep for almost a year, he asks her for permission to "have an affair". Fiona then consults with a divorce lawyer. In the midst of this life crisis, she visits Adam, the underage Jehovah's Witness, on whose case she is to decide, in the hospital. She adheres to the principle in the Children Act that the best interests of the child should always be the primary concern of the courts, and to answer that question she chooses to speak to Adam personally.

As his parents already described him, he is an extraordinary personality and does not blindly follow his parents' beliefs. He sincerely believes that the soul loved by God resides in his blood and that if it were contaminated by another blood, he would reject the sacred gift of life. Adam is interested in poetry and music, and because he brought his guitar to the hospital, Fiona sings the folk song Down by the Salley Gardens for him to go with his guitar. Adam develops an almost romantic fixation on Fiona because she is the first adult who seems genuinely interested in him. Believing she saved his life, he is beginning to break away from his parents and Jehovah's Witnesses, and has burning questions about all sorts of things.

He follows her - including on a business trip to Newcastle - and writes letters and poems for her. Fiona accepts this, but does not want any further contact with him. She puts him in his place, insists on “professional distance”, and although Adam and his fate touched her very much, she has him put in a taxi and sent back. During a Christmas concert, where she accompanies a singing colleague on the piano, she is handed a note stating that Adam has suffered a serious relapse, is in hospital and is likely to die that same night. The now adult Adam refuses any treatment and has broken off contact with his parents. She survived the concert with great difficulty, but instead of the agreed encore she played the song she had sung on Adam's bedside and sings herself as if driven before she fled the concert hall and ran through the rain to the hospital in her evening dress.

Adam is badly marked by the disease. Fiona tries to encourage him, but Adam makes it clear that now, as an adult, he is free to decide, and dies soon afterwards. Adam's funeral with the mourners and Fiona can be seen some distance away. You and Jack leave the cemetery together.

production

"He must be protected from his religion and himself ... I believe that his life is worth more than his dignity."

- Ian McEwan - Child welfare
The film is based on the novel The Children Act by Ian McEwan

The film is based on a novel of the same name by Ian McEwan , who also adapted it for the film. In it he intensely deals with the conflict of values ​​between secular and religious law and also gives insights into British jurisdiction, a description of MDR culture : “McEwan convincingly mixes facts and fiction - according to his own statements, it is based on an authentic case of history. In clear, precise language and with gentle sarcasm, Ian McEwan describes how the life of the otherwise sober lawyer is temporarily turned upside down by personal and professional crises. ”McEwan was born the son of a professional soldier and grew up partly in Singapore and Libya. He could his greatest success as a writer in 2001 with the novel Atonement (original title Atonement ) celebrate, who also filmed was. McEwan is a member of the Royal Society of Literature, the Royal Society of Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Directed by Richard Eyre . Actress Emma Thompson took on the role of judge Fiona Maye, Stanley Tucci plays her husband Jack. Fionn Whitehead can be seen in the role of Adam, Ben Chaplin in the role of his father Kevin Henry.

The German synchronization was for a dialogue book and dialogue director of Antonia whole on behalf of Splendid Synchron GmbH, Berlin. In the German version, Monica Bielenstein speaks Fiona Maye, Lutz Mackensy speaks her husband Jack, Sebastian Fitzner speaks the young Adam Henry and Torsten Michaelis speaks his father Kevin Henry.

Filming began in autumn 2016 and ended on December 8, 2016. Among other things, they took place in London, for example in the building of the Royal Courts of Justice . The score was composed by Stephen Warbeck .

The film celebrated its world premiere on September 9, 2017 as part of the Toronto International Film Festival , where it was shown in the official selection at the Special Presentations. A first trailer for the film was presented at the beginning of June 2018. In June 2018 the film was shown at the Nantucket Film Festival. In June and July 2018 it was shown in the Spotlight section at the Munich Film Festival . There, leading actress Emma Thompson was honored with a CineMerit Award for her contributions to the cinema. The film was released in German cinemas on August 30, 2018. A UK theatrical release is scheduled for the following day. Also in August 2018, the film was shown at the Melbourne International Film Festival. The film opened in a selected US cinema on September 14, 2018.

reception

Age rating

In the USA, the film received an R rating from the MPAA , which corresponds to a rating of 17 and over. In Germany the film is FSK 12 .

Reviews

The film was rated positively by 74 percent of the critics recorded by Rotten Tomatoes and achieved a score of 62 on Metacritic (as of April 17, 2020).

Fionn Whitehead , here a few months after filming was finished, plays the underage Jehovah's Witness Adam in the film

Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter says the two central roles could hardly have been better cast, and that Emma Thompson works in the film with a remarkable subtlety. Stefan Turiak from PC Games thinks that "thanks to the formidable portrayal of Thompson and Stanley Tucci as well as the great newcomer Fionn Whitehead", the drama will become an "extremely interesting portrait of law and religion in a modern society".

Gerhard Midding from epd Film thinks that it is Richard Eyre's civilized narrative temperament that surrounds the turmoil of his characters with tact: “Eyre allows a touch of sensuality: It is a nice character detail when Fiona always goes barefoot in her apartment. As a director, he belongs to the school that first and foremost wants to bring out the performance of others, the actors, costume and production designers. He knows how to cleverly drape her skills. But he is also sensitive to the timbre of a moment. "

The film was given the rating of particularly valuable by the German film and media rating . The reasoning states: “Richard Eyre's almost classically staged melodrama is of the highest quality and conveys the tragic events with captivating elegance. Almost incidentally, the film offers a precise description of the milieu of a privileged class and their arduous social practices. The focus, however, is the performance of the actors, first and foremost Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci . The film relies less on its straightforward plot than on the power of images, gestures and sounds. Existential problems are always told in an emotionally plausible way, even if the music is typically based on great feelings: Eyres offers visual and auditory storytelling at an exemplary level. "

Use in school lessons

Kirsten Taylor from Vision Kino sees a possible use of the film in the subjects ethics , law , religion, English and German . Possible starting points for the educational work are the ethical and legal questions that arise in the film. In addition, there is also a discussion of German family law and its guiding principles.

Awards

The norske filmfestivalen 2018

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for child welfare . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 181682 / K). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ^ A b c Ian McEwan: Child Welfare. In. MDR culture. Retrieved June 30, 2018.
  3. ↑ http://www.theknowledgeonline.com/the-knowledge-bulletin/post/2016/12/08/filming-wraps-on-several-films
  4. ↑ Stephen Warbeck Scoring Richard Eyre's 'The Children Act' In: filmmusicreporter.com, July 25, 2017.
  5. ↑ Brent Lang: Toronto Film Festival Lineup Includes Movies From Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Alexander Payne In: Variety, July 25, 2017.
  6. ^ British Council Film: British Council Film: The Children Act. Retrieved September 12, 2017 .
  7. ↑ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/children-act-trailer-first-look-emma-thompson-richard-eyres/
  8. ↑ http://www.ack.net/news/20180424/comedy-boundaries-to-open-2018-nantucket-film-festival
  9. ↑ best interests of the child. In: filmfest-muenchen.de. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
  10. ↑ Start dates Germany In: insidekino.com. Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  11. ^ The Children Act. In: miff.com. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  12. ^ The Children Act. In: comingsoon.net. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  13. ^ The Children Act In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  14. ^ The Children Act In: Metacritic. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  15. ↑ Stephen Farber: 'The Children Act': Film Review | TIFF 2017. The Hollywood Reporter , September 9, 2017, accessed September 13, 2017 .
  16. ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/Kindeswohl-Film-267768/Tests/Emma-Thompson-Richard-Eye-1262020/
  17. ^ Gerhard Midding: Critique of 'child welfare'. In: epd Film, August 24, 2018.
  18. ↑ Child welfare In: fbw-filmb Bewertung.com . German film and media rating. Retrieved June 16, 2018.
  19. ↑ best interests of the child. In: visionkino.de, version from September 19, 2018, accessed on January 22, 2019.
  20. ↑ https://filmfestivalen.no/en/awards-presented-at-the-46th-norwegian-international-film-festival/