Passenger 23 - Disappeared at sea

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title Passenger 23 - Disappeared at sea
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2018
length 120 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Alexander Dierbach
script Miriam Rechel
music Sebastian pill
camera Ian Blumers
cut Günter Schultens
occupation

Passenger 23 - Disappeared on the High Seas is a German thriller from 2018. The film is based on the novel Passenger 23 by the German writer Sebastian Fitzek . It was first broadcast on December 13, 2018 on RTL Television . The title refers to a term used to denote mysterious cruise deaths .

action

Five years ago, the police psychologist Martin Schwartz lost his son Timmy and his wife Nadja on a cruise. Since then he has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and drinks a lot of alcohol. After working against pedophile criminals, he received a call from the writer Gerlinde Dobkowitz. This is located on the cruise ship Sirius and deals with theories about disappeared passengers. Now a girl named Anouk, who had been missing for two weeks, was discovered on the ship. It owns Timmy's teddy.

Schwartz gets on the ship, which sails from Southampton to New York City within a week , and tries to solve the case, always remembering his son. The traumatized girl Anouk sits in an isolated room and is looked after by the ship's doctor Elena Beck and her assistant Sheela. Meanwhile, Anouk's mother Naomi Lamar is held captive inside the ship. An unknown person asks her questions via a laptop , including what is the worst thing she has ever done.

Lisa Stiller is also on board with her mother Julia. The two women received the trip as a present from Captain Daniel Bonhoeffer, who is Lisa's godfather and Elena's partner at the same time. Lisa is bullied over sex videos . She thinks of suicide all the time and jumps overboard in one night. Schwartz, who found out about the background through his hacker friend Diesel, saves Lisa from the sea.

The police psychologist also questions Anouk several times, who mainly communicates in writing and with pictures. She gives him important information about her mother. Schwartz goes into an anchor room with Elena Beck and she climbs into a depression from which she comes back with pain in her face. Ultimately, Schwartz finds Naomi in the old garbage chute, which was described as the "blue shelf", but can no longer save her because Elena's assistant Sheela has opened the bottom flap to the water. Schwarz finds a video on the notebook through which Naomi was communicated, which initially suggests that Sheela is alone behind the deaths.

By going over his conversations with Anouk in his head, Schwarz finally realizes the truth. Elena was behind the deaths and missing people. She wants to punish mothers who have sexually abused their daughters . Sheela, who was always close to Anouk's room, helped her. Schwartz tracks down Elena after the cruise in Mexico . There he meets his son Timmy, who is still alive, and takes him back to Berlin.

production

Passenger 23 is the fifth adaptation of a Fitzek novel after The Child , The Joshua Profile , Cut Off and Amokspiel . The film was shot on a cruise ship on the Mediterranean . However, the ship was not specifically named in order to prevent a negative impact on the business of cruise operators. The main actor Gregorowicz spoke in an interview about a ship from the 80s with 3000 guests on board. Some commentators pointed out that the plot of the film had certain similarities with the disappearance of the former DSDS candidate Daniel Küblböck . However, the film was shot prior to this case. Following the first broadcast, RTL showed a documentary about missing people on ships.

As in other film adaptations of his novels, Fitzek was to have a cameo . However, the corresponding scene was deleted because the protagonist Gregorowicz fell ill.

The film received funding of € 500,000 from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW .

reception

Jan Freitag sees the story at DWDL.de as a "high seas game full of dubious characters and mysterious twists and turns". In contrast to the book, however, the film is “strangely confused”, although it does without “showmanship”. The film is saved by Lukas Gregorowicz, whose aura is "of an artificial truthfulness".

In the review for the FAZ, Heike Hupertz praised the film, although it also had a disadvantage: “The camera, music, production design and editing appear appropriately gloomy and keep the tension for over two hours. For readers of Fitzek's book, who are familiar with the surprising resolution due to the lack of figure logic, the entertainment value is likely to be reduced. Or absent. "

David Grzeschik compares the cliffhanger of the novel with the implementation in the film in his criticism atquotemeter.de . The latter “also manages to build up a strong arc of tension in the first half. Unfortunately, this is not resolved satisfactorily. "However, the reviewer also finds positive aspects:" On the other hand, "Passenger 23" scores points with its authentic and atmospheric backdrop, the strong images and the dark mood conveyed from the start. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Passenger 23 - Disappeared at sea . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ a b c d e On the set of "Passenger 23": Allusions to the diesel noise. DWDL.de , December 12, 2018, accessed December 16, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Gregorowicz: 'I hope that the film has a rather chilling effect'. Quotemeter.de , December 13, 2018, accessed December 16, 2018 .
  4. ↑ The nightmare ship is fully booked. FAZ , December 13, 2018, accessed on December 16, 2018 .
  5. ↑ First broadcast: RTL shows “Passenger 23”. Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, December 13, 2018, accessed on December 16, 2018 .