Platzspitz baby

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Movie
Original title Platzspitz baby
Country of production Switzerland
original language Swiss German
Publishing year 2020
length 100 minutes
Rod
Director Pierre Monnard
script André Kuettel
production Peter Reichenbach
music Matteo Pagamici
camera Darran Bragg
cut Sophie Blöchlinger
occupation

Platzspitzbaby is a Swiss feature film based on the autobiography of the same name by Michelle Halbheer from 2020, which captured her childhood memories of the relationship with her mother together with the journalist Franziska K. Müller in the 2013 book Platzspitzbaby . The film tells the story of eleven-year-old Mia, who, after the open drug scenes at Platzspitz and in Letten , moved with her mother to the Zurich Oberland in spring 1995.

action

The film begins with a prequel in which eleven-year-old Mia can be seen before the open drug scene at Platzspitz is dissolved. There the relationship between her parents is falling apart and how Mia processes these experiences with her imaginary friend Buddy, who accompanies her in such situations with his mandolin.

With the end of the open drug scene at Platzspitz and the closing of the open scene at Letten train station three years later , the drug addicts were sent back to their home communities in the spring of 1995. Mia decides to move to the Zürcher Oberland with her mother, where she moves into an apartment that has been assigned to her and the actual action begins.

Mia has to integrate herself at school and finds new friends in a youth group. At the same time, the film sheds light on Mia's relationship with her drug-addicted mother, who is trying to get out of drug addiction. However, this soon meets old friends again and falls back into old patterns. So Mia has to accompany her back to Zurich, where she helps her to get new drugs and helps with drug tests. The film shows the constant setbacks in the relationship between mother and daughter. Another aspect is the impotence of the authorities. Although Mia's father wants custody of his daughter, he is powerless without her consent.

The film ends after Mia escapes from home. In the final scene she calls her father from a phone booth, who is supposed to pick her up in the car.

production

Scenes for the film were shot in Zurich , Winterthur , Wald , Rüti ZH , Saland , Pfäffikon ZH and Bischofszell .

The film shoot was supported by author Michelle Halbheer. Although it's a book adaptation, the plot differs in a few places. So the child in the film is also called Mia and not Michelle and at Halbheer's request it was also ensured that the mother did not look like her own. A total of 31 days of shooting were required for the film.

The film was produced by C-Films , which has been responsible for other successful films such as “Zwingli”, “Schellenursli” or “Verdingbub” in recent years. The total budget of the film was CHF 3.1 million. The co-producer is SRG SSR , which also contributed nine percent (SRG 4%, SRF 5%) to the financing of the film. In cooperation with the Lucerne School of Education , school material suitable for the film was developed, which includes nine short films.

The title song for the film, “Ich gibe nöd uf”, was sung by Luna Mwezi herself. The song was written by Dana Burkhard, Mya Audrey, Luk Zimmermann and Elif Erisik.

The film premiered on January 8th in Zurich. After further previews, the film was officially released in German-speaking cinemas on January 16, 2020. The premiere followed on January 23rd in the Italian part of Switzerland. The theatrical release of a French dubbed version in French-speaking Switzerland under the title “Les Enfants du Platzspitz” (Eng. “The children from Platzspitz”) was originally planned for March 18, but was later postponed to August 19, 2020 due to the corona crisis .

reception

criticism

According to the film bulletin , the film can credibly portray the emotional dilemma in which children like Mia are stuck. The Swiss film magazine praises the two leading actresses Luna Mwezi and Sarah Spale, who play their roles convincingly. The magazine highly credits director Pierre Monnard and screenwriter André Küttel for narrating the plot consistently from the child's point of view and thus allowing them to save themselves. The two main actresses are also praised by the film portal outnow.ch, who ascribe them a decisive role in the success of the film on an emotional level. Filmbulletin and outnow.ch criticize the imaginary figure of the buddy who, according to outnow.ch, is too much in contrast to the rest of the story and thereby throws the audience out of the story.

In its review of the film, the NZZ explicitly praised the two main characters as well as director Pierre Monnhard, who with his "sensitive staging" contributes a lot to the mood in the film. In the eyes of the online portal Watson , the film is compulsory, Monnhard is tearing down walls with his film that many a social worker, police officer, neighbor or doctor would have preferred to leave standing. Radio SRF 3 , whose parent company SRG co-produced the film, speaks of the theatrical gems of Spale and Mwezi and calls the film “a bombshell of film”. The Basler Zeitung described the film as a “masterpiece of Swiss film history”, in which the viewer finally leaves the cinema hall “deeply touched”.

André Seidenberg, a doctor who was active in the open drug scene at Platzspitz at the time and who also worked with actress Sarah Spale, also rated the film as successful. He conveyed the reality of the time after the closing of the Platzspitz and also reflected the prevailing mood well. When asked about points of criticism, he only complains about the inactivity of a caring social worker in a scene, in reality she would never have behaved that way.

success

In the first week, the film attracted 62,000 viewers to the cinemas and thus entered the Swiss cinema charts at number 1 in the first week.

After 10 days, the film cracked the 100,000 viewer mark and was therefore more successful than other recently released Swiss films such as Zwingli and Bruno Manser - The Voice of the Rainforest . The success of the film also had a positive effect on the sales of the book, which returned to number 1 on the Swiss book charts

One month after its theatrical release, the film had 200,000 admissions.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Platzspitzbaby: Michelle Halbheer in the Swiss bestseller list, accessed on January 9, 2014
  2. ↑ Tweet from Pierre Monhard. February 3, 2020, accessed February 3, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Anna Kappeler: The Zurich drug hell shaped her life . In: züritipp . January 16, 2020 ( tagesanzeiger.ch [accessed on February 3, 2020]).
  4. ↑ a b Zurich's eyesore. In: Coop newspaper . January 13, 2020, accessed February 3, 2020 .
  5. ^ "Platzspitzbaby" - the film. In: LINK magazine. SRG Deutschschweiz, September 16, 2019, accessed on February 3, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b Zurich's dark chapter as a movie. In: persoenlich.com. January 7, 2020, accessed February 3, 2020 .
  7. ↑ I GIBE NÖD UF by Luna Mwezi title song PLATZSPITZBABY. In: Platzspitzbaby. January 3, 2020, accessed February 4, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Les Enfants du Platzspitz. In: ascot-elite.ch. Retrieved February 3, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Les Enfants du Platzspitz. In: ascot-elite.ch. Retrieved August 5, 2020 .
  10. ^ Julia Zutavern: Platzspitzbaby . In: Filmbulletin - magazine for film and cinema . No. January 1 , 2020 ( filmbulletin.ch [accessed February 3, 2020]).
  11. ↑ Neither Hinder ski no Fürschi. In: outnow.ch. January 20, 2020, accessed February 3, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Lory Roebuck: “Platzspitzbaby”: The film about the Zurich drug hell does right what Swiss cinema often does wrong . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . January 16, 2020 ( nzz.ch [accessed February 3, 2020]).
  13. ↑ Sarah Serafini: "Platzspitzbaby" is tearing down walls - it is a force to watch. In: Watson (news portal) . January 12, 2020, accessed February 3, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Laszlo Schneider: Finally there is Zurich's darkest chapter as a movie. In: Radio SRF 3 . January 15, 2020, accessed February 3, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Raphaela Portmann: When mom injects heroin . In: Basler Zeitung . January 15, 2020 ( bazonline.ch [accessed February 3, 2020]).
  16. ↑ Geri Krebs: Interview - André Seidenberg, the Platzspitzhirsch. In: ARTTV . January 15, 2020, accessed February 4, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Lory Roebuck: The worm is in the Swiss Film Prize . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . January 24, 2020 ( nzz.ch [accessed February 3, 2020]).
  18. ↑ "Platzspitzbaby" has already sold over 100,000 cinema tickets. In: outnow.ch. January 27, 2020, accessed February 3, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Six reasons for the success of “Platzspitzbaby”. In: Tagesanzeiger online. February 13, 2020, accessed February 14, 2020 .