Hour of the Foxes

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TV movie
Original title Hour of the Foxes
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1993
length 89 minutes
Rod
Director Detlef Rönfeldt
script Rainer Berg ,
Frank Göhre
production Jörg Richter , FFP
music Henryk Górecki , Andreas Dicke
camera Axel de Roche
cut Angelika Sengbusch
occupation

Hour of the Foxes is a German television film from 1993, which tells the fictional story of a party official who gets into a moral crisis because of scheming machinations and power tussles within his party. The film was produced on behalf of the WDR by FFP (Freie Fernseh-Produktion, Jörg Richter) in Hamburg. The script was written by Rainer Berg and Frank Göhre , directed by Detlef Rönfeldt . The film, which shortly before the "super election year" 1994 tried to approach the topic of "politics and morals" with elements of the political thriller, was broadcast on December 22, 1993 at prime time on ARD.

action

The Chancellor is in trouble. His public sympathy curve drops threateningly, two state elections are lost. Then the Bavarian Prime Minister Bernhuber ( Franz Viehmann ), right-wing winger in the party presidium , announced his candidacy for the party chairmanship. Wolfgang Klaasen ( Siemen Rühaak ), Head of Department for Political Planning of the ruling party, is a loyal employee of the Chancellor and his General Secretary Rais ( Jürgen Hentsch ) , who is known to be “left-wing”, despite all reservations . Suddenly a friend from the old days appears ( Hanns Zischler ), who is now in contact with right-wing extremist circles in order to blackmail the party leadership with a dubious study about an alleged mental illness of the Chancellor. Even before the connections between Bernhuber and the right-wing extremist clients of the study can be uncovered, Providence comes to the rescue: a terrorist attack on Rais' car, in which the Chancellor is also sitting. Unharmed, the two survived multiple shots at the armored limousine, whoever fired it. There can be nothing better for the Chancellor's polls. In the twinkling of an eye the party's press office invents a “Kommando Scharnhorst” including a letter of confession, postpones a dramatically staged press conference, and although it soon turns out that the alleged “attack” was only a staging, the Chancellor, the “right-wing terrorist”, happily escaped, look forward to the party congress again with confidence. Bernhuber, who knows about the machinations, withdraws his candidacy because he would have no chance in this situation anyway. In return, he is served the resignation of the “left-leaning” General Secretary Rais - a game about gang to secure the power of the Chancellor. Wolfgang Klaasen, the sad hero from whose perspective the story is told, falls by the wayside. In the end he saw through everything, but is not in a position to decisively influence the course of events. Political haggling and maintaining power are obviously more important than truth or morality. Klaasen not only loses his job, his lover (Kirsten Block) and his last illusions, but also his alcoholic wife Charlotte (Katrin Saß), whose car accident is at the beginning and whose death is at the end of the story told as a flashback.

background

The film is based on the 1990 novel “Party Friends” by Wulf Schönbohm , who was an advisor to Prime Minister Erwin Teufel in Baden-Württemberg at the time the film was made. As a former policy adviser to the CDU General Secretary Heiner Geißler, he was able to draw on his own experience in political business. The real background of Schönbohm's novel was the failed attempt to overthrow Helmut Kohl as party leader of the CDU in the run-up to the Bremen party congress in 1989 , which led to the disempowerment of Lothar Späth and Heiner Geißler . Unlike in the film, the attempted coup in Bremen did not come from the right but from the left of the CDU.

Jörg Richter, the film's producer, was also a professional politician. He worked as a political advisor under Helmut Schmidt in the Chancellery and was head of "press and public relations" at the SPD party headquarters in Bonn.

occupation

Siemen Rühaak played the main role of Wolfgang Klaasen . Jürgen Hentsch , Stefan Reck , Katrin Sass , Kirsten Block and Ulrich Matschoss played other important roles . The fictional Chancellor Klumper, about whom everything revolves, cannot be seen in the film - by the way, just like the "fictitious" attack that ultimately ensures his re-election at the party congress.

resonance

Walter A. Perger wrote a whole page about the film, the novel and the real political background in Die Zeit (No. 50/1993). His conclusion:

“The film has no morals, even less than the book. It shows excerpts from reality, alienated. It could easily have turned into insulting politicians and parties. The writer, producer, director and the actors were wary of it. They show politicians as perpetrators who also become victims. Driven people who are probably interested in the cause, but who invest their time and energy above all in the question of all questions: the question of power. All in all, it's like real life. Exaggerated, the real General Secretary from back then will perhaps say when he gets involved in public. But still believable, authentic. The three levels, novel, film and reality are largely interchangeable. "

Awards

In 1994 the film was nominated for the German Academy of Performing Arts' Television Play Prize.

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