My son Helen
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | My son Helen |
 | |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2015 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Gregor Schnitzler |
| script | Sarah Schnier |
| production | Ivo-Alexander Beck |
| music | Maurus Ronner |
| camera | Jutta Pohlmann |
| cut | Ollie Lanvermann |
| occupation | |
| |
My son Helen is a German TV film in the Dramedy genre by director Gregor Schnitzler from 2015 about a transsexual young person. Sarah Schnier wrote the script .
content
The 16-year-old Finn Wilke lives in Berlin with his single father Tobias, whose wife died three years earlier in a bicycle accident. The father fires Finn for a year abroad with his aunt in San Francisco . When Tobias wanted to pick up the now 17-year-old from the airport a year later, he was faced with a young lady named Helen, in whom he slowly recognized his child. Helen reveals to her father that she has always felt in the wrong body, and it later emerges that both his late mother and the tutor Diana Calis knew of Helens / Finn's fate. The stay abroad was planned so that Helen could finally live her true gender identity . She had already started hormone replacement therapy beforehand , which was supposed to delay sexual development during puberty . The next steps in gender reassignment will take place in San Francisco. By taking female hormone preparations, she expects a delayed female puberty in her future, followed by gender reassignment surgery .
The 17-year-old's environment has problems dealing with the unfamiliar situation. Especially father Tobias cannot understand why he was never initiated. Helen also experienced severe bullying against herself at school. Her grandparents accuse her father of being responsible for the bad behavior of the "son" with his upbringing.
After a wild nocturnal foray with her friends, which ends at a police station, the youth welfare office intervenes to examine the disordered relationships around Helen's gender assignment more closely. There is also a risk of admission to psychiatry. In order to avoid the problems that arise and also to spare her father from official injustice, Helen decides to live as Finn again. But she doesn't last long: Helen freaks out in her forced male role, and so the film initially seems to have a tragic end. But then, at the end of the film, another year is quickly skipped: Finn is now finally alive, accepted by everyone, as Helen, Tobias finds his new partner in the tutor, and all problems seem to have been overcome.
background
The film was produced by the Berlin-based Ninety-Minute Film GmbH on behalf of ARD Degeto . The producer was Ivo-Alexander Beck. The shooting took place in Berlin and the surrounding area. My son Helen first ran on TV on April 24, 2015 on First . When it was broadcast in the main evening program, the film achieved solid ratings with 3.43 million viewers and a 12 percent market share for the broadcast slot.
reception
Reviews
“Apart from the pompous music staged, the approach to the subject is initially a cautious, positive surprise. Director Gregor Schnitzler stages Helen as a person who wants to present their new / old self to their surroundings with their heads held high. What unfortunately falls by the wayside is a deeper essence. With statements like: 'I now live as a girl', and the occasional confusion between ' gender reassignment surgery ' and ' sex reassignment ' without clarifying both terms, a strange triviality remains. The basic problem is touched upon for a target group that has not yet had any contact with the topic of sex and gender . For everyone else, it may have triggering content. "
“My son Helen then loses a lot of sympathy at the end when the unconditional will of the makers comes through not to make a problem film, at most a problem film. At a garden party, all conflicts were happily resolved. "
“Jannik Schümann doesn't play an easy role. He gives the Helen with a mixture of borrowed strength and irritatingly flimsy rabbitism. Maybe also because Helen herself has not yet fully arrived in her feminine role. ”[…] Overambitiously,“ a model society panorama unfolds. Every gesture and every sentence sounds like read from a corresponding brochure. Every possible problem is touched on in order to be able to find the most desirable solution "
“The film [...] approaches gender and sexual identity with respect . It shows the insecure, desperate, but sometimes aggressive reactions of those who would like to leave everything as it has always been. But even those who stand by Helen's side will eventually reach their limits. [...] Jannik Schümann succeeds in showing a young person who is unsettled, but who is also determined to start a new life. "
“Some social clichés may be annoying, some politically correct solutions may be difficult to bear: My son Helen remains an achievement. A little textbook might not be bad in this case. The film explains the difficult legal situation, especially of minors who know that they are living in the wrong body. It shows how little they can determine when it comes to their name or hormone treatment. Certainly not every viewer was aware of how many psychological tests transident people have to undergo. "
Web links
- My son Helen in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- My son Helen in the online film database
- Quotas of the first broadcast on DWDL.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b mik: My son Helen - ARD film on the topic of transsexuality. In: queerpride.de, March 5, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
- ↑ Primetimecheck: Friday, April 24, 2015. In: quotenmeter.de , accessed on April 25, 2015. Accessed on October 20, 2015.
- ↑ David Denk: ARD film "My Son Helen": Problem film about transsexuality. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 24, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
- ↑ Arno Frank: Heino Ferch has a girl as a son. In: Spiegel Online , April 23, 2015. Accessed October 20, 2015.
- ↑ ARD film "My Son Helen": This is not a phase. In: FAZ , April 24, 2015. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
- ↑ Transgender: Gender is what you see. In: Zeit Online , April 24, 2015. Accessed October 20, 2015.