Milk forest
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Milk forest |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2003 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Christoph Hochhäusler |
| script |
Benjamin Heisenberg Christoph Hochhäusler |
| production |
Mario Stefan Clarens Grollmann |
| music | Benedict slate |
| camera | Ali Olay Gozkaya |
| cut | Gisela Zick |
| occupation | |
| |
Milchwald is a German fiction film by the director Christoph Hochhäusler from 2003. This film is Hochhäusler's film debut and his thesis at the University of Television and Film Munich . Milchwald is the initial spark for the breakthrough in film aesthetics at the Berlin School .
action
Sylvia Mattis drives with her stepchildren Lea and Konstantin through a summer landscape near the German-Polish border. They all quarrel a little, and since the children annoy the stepmother, she lets her get out at the edge of the field and drives a little further on her own. When she comes back to invite the children back, they are gone. You made your way home alone.
Back in the newly built home, Sylvia hides the disappearance of the children from her husband Josef. He only found out through a call from a teacher who missed the children. Josef alerts the police about kidnapping. Sylvia remains inactive and lies to her husband, leaving him in the dark about the disappearance of the children for fear of losing her husband's love.
Lea and Konstantin run through the darkening forest and meet the Pole Kuba Lubinski, who is having dinner in front of his van. He takes the children with him and tries unsuccessfully to call their parents. Sylvia takes a large number of pills and has a letter ready for her husband. Lubinski actually wants to take the children to the police the next day when he learns from the news that the two missing children are rewarded with 10,000 euros. This time Lubinski successfully calls his father Josef, who sees this confirm his suspicion of kidnapping. A meeting in Poland to hand over the money to the exclusion of the police is agreed.
Sylvia comes to and goes to Poland with her husband. Lea and Konstantin have meanwhile run away, but Lubinski still wants to meet his parents and collect the 10,000 euros. The children try with their means to orientate themselves and to get home, but fail and lose sight of each other. Lubinksi finds Lea again in a church and soon afterwards Constantine as well.
Lea is very suspicious of Lubinski. As the journey continues, she fills the caustic toilet cleaning agent into Lubinski's thermos. Lubinski drinks it, comes to a standstill and stops the car with an emergency stop. When he can speak again, he sends the children away. You then run alone and lost along the summer road.
Stylistic characteristics
Milchwald is a road movie and a variation on the fairy tale by Hansel and Gretel. In contrast to fairy tales, the children are not only sweet and innocent and the stepmother is not only angry, but rather overwhelmed. Lea in particular is very self-confident and assertive. The film is not a fairy tale, but realistic through and through. As a spectator, one expects the children to be saved soon, but they only move from one unfortunate situation to the next. The disappointment about the permanent lack of a happy ending leaves you feeling anxious. This is supported by the experimental music of Benjamin Schiefer.
On a sub-level, the relationship between Germany and Poland in the post-socialist era is thematized allegorically. The idyllic landscape pictures are in stark contrast to the precarious situation and forlornness of the children and parents.
The camera remains at a distance throughout the entire film, there are no close-ups, it remains static without zooming, panning or driving. There are only a few cuts in the film. The dialogues are tight.
Reviews
Milchwald and Angela Schanelec's film Marseille received a very positive response from French film critics in 2003 and 2004, who then proclaimed the nouvelle vague allemande . Milchwald was the first film from the Berlin School to attract international attention, while the German public ignored this work.
"Among the young German auteur filmmakers who stood out during the Berlinale, Christoph Hochhäusler is without a doubt the most promising." (Télérama)
"The best German film at the Berlinale." (Le Monde)
Awards and festivals
- Berlinale 2003, International Forum for Young Films
- Cologne Screenings: Spectrum of Young Film
- International Festival of Films on Art, Montréal 2003, competition
- Vancouver International Film Festival
- Chicago International Film Festival
- Max Festival in Hong Kong
- Festival of German Films Paris
- Sithengi Film Festival (Cape Town)
- Film Festival Mannheim / Heidelberg
- Boston Independent Film Festival
- Berlin & Beyond San Francisco
literature
Web links
- Milk Wood in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Milchwald at the Berlinale (PDF; 242 kB)
- Soundtrack by Benjamin Schiefer on Soundcloud
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dieter Wunderlich: Detailed summary of the milk forest
- ↑ Katrin Polak- Springer: On the difficulties of letting the other speak: The German-Polish relationship in Christoph Hochhäusler's "Milk Wood". In: EDGE - A Graduate Journal for German and Scandinavian Studies of October 20, 2011 , student paper at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, accessed on March 25, 2019.
- ↑ Dieter Wunderlich: Detailed summary of the milk forest
- ^ Rüdiger Suchsland: Longing for redemption. In: artechock, accessed December 17, 2012