day of the truth
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | day of the truth |
| Country of production | Germany , France , Austria |
| original language | German & French |
| Publishing year | 2015 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Anna Justice |
| script |
Johannes Betz , Jochen Bitzer |
| production |
Alexandra Kordes , Meike Kordes |
| music |
Julian Maas , Christoph M. Kaiser |
| camera | Adrian Cranage |
| cut | Ulrike Leipold |
| occupation | |
| |
Day of Truth is a German drama film directed by Anna Justice from 2015 . The film is the German contribution to the Tandem - two films project, a topic with which the German- French co-production in the field of television films is to be promoted. The French counterpart is the feature film The Split Village by Gabriel Le Bomin . As a location for scenes in the nuclear power plant that served zwentendorf nuclear power plant in Zwentendorf an der Donau ( Lower Austria ) that never went into operation; the geographical constellation applies to the Fessenheim nuclear power plant .
action
At the German-French border near Fessenheim one was dead found. The German public prosecutor Marie Hoffmann discovered that it was the French Bernard Feyermann and contacted her French colleague Jean-Luc Laboetie. Feyermann worked for many years as a radiation protection officer at the French nuclear power plant in Haut-Rhin . Hoffmann notes that he apparently recorded a video message in his apartment before he committed suicide . However, there is no memory card in the video camera.
During the investigation, a serious incident occurs at the power plant. An assassin disguised as a worker gains access to the control room of the nuclear reactor . As the investigation turns out, it is the former shift manager David Kollwein. His young daughter died of leukemia some time ago . He is also suffering from blood cancer and blames the operators of the nuclear power plant for his fate: When his daughter visited him at the factory, an incident occurred in which the two were exposed to a high dose of radiation . The case was covered up and Kollwein's action for damages was dismissed. Now Kollwein wants to bring the truth to light by force.
With armed force he forces all workers, including his successor as shift supervisor, Erich Dubois, to leave the plant. He brings both the reactor and the video surveillance of the building under his control. He switches off the cooling circuit and destroys an emergency room with which the reactor can be controlled in the event of an accident . At technically relevant points, he also attaches explosive charges that can be triggered by radio . He makes his demand via the video system: He demands a joint appearance by the energy minister, the manager of the nuclear power plant and the radiation protection officer. The three are supposed to admit the grievances live on prime-time television. Hoffmann informs him that Feyermann has been found dead. Kollwein insists that the energy minister should explain himself. He threatens not to turn the cooling back on. This would mean that the plant would be in a critical condition within three hours at the latest and a core meltdown would occur .
The police tried in vain to eliminate the assassin. Even a worker who hides in the plant cannot stop Kollwein. In a duel, Kollwein manages to strangle him. Marie Hoffmann, meanwhile, continues to investigate the case of suicide. It evaluates the movement profile of Feyermann's mobile phone and arrives at Kollwein's property in Waldkirch . When asked about this, Kollwein shows that Feyermann visited him in vain on the eve of his suicide and asked for an interview. Marie Hoffmann tries to stop Kollwein from doing what he does. She tells him about the missing memory card, which she suspects to be evidence of Kollwein's claims. Finally, in conversation with the assassin, the decisive idea comes to her. Shortly before the ultimatum expires, she drives to the grave of Kollwein's daughter. Under the grave light she finds the memory card she is looking for, on which a confession from Feyermann and an overview of all covered up incidents are recorded. He had hidden her there after Kollwein refused to speak to him.
Meanwhile, the energy minister has arrived at the nuclear power plant. He wants to have the assassin killed and hopes that the scandal will go undetected. The security chief has manipulated parts of the video surveillance and thus enables a special task force of the GIPN to advance largely unnoticed to the control room. Hoffmann arrives at the last moment, gains access to the outside broadcast vehicle and asks the technician to play the contents of the memory card instead of the current declaration from the energy minister. Kollwein, who followed the minister's speech on television, now sees that the scandal has been exposed and that he is being given “justice”. At this moment the special task force blows up the door to the control room and shoots Kollwein. However, a bullet also hits one of the explosive charges, whereupon the control room explodes and the reactor threatens to become critical. All but Dubois and his team fled the facility. A meltdown seems inevitable.
Credits
“There are currently over 400 reactors in operation worldwide, mainly to generate electricity. In Europe alone there are currently almost 200 reactors. "
The Fessenheim nuclear power plant featured in the film was completed in 1978 and is still in operation today. There have been several incidents in recent years . The French government had promised to shut it down by the end of 2016. But it was always postponed. Most recently, a shutdown was planned for 2020.
reception
Audience ratings
While the first broadcast for arte on January 8, 2015 was successful with 2.5% (810,000 viewers in Germany), the first broadcast on ARD was on January 14, 2015 with 8.9%, 2.78 million viewers.
criticism
Daland Segler from the Frankfurter Rundschau is not at all enthusiastic. He is bothered by the many clichés , the “fashionable antics like the insertion of SMS messages” and the “disruptions” of the script, when the special task force appears and has to leave without consequences. He considers the start of the film tandem to be a failure: “Even on the first exit: a breakdown.” Peter Luley from Spiegel Online is less critical. From his point of view, the tandem can be seen, because the topic is "relevant, and wisely different, so to speak national-typical approaches were chosen." Justice tells a no-frills thriller.
Heike Hubertz speaks in the FAZ of a "dramaturgically perfectly constructed disaster film", which is supplemented by a thriller plot . She describes the atmosphere of the film as oppressive and gloomy. In the Stuttgarter Zeitung, Tilmann Gangloff praises the again convincing work of the screenwriter Johannes W. Betz, who specializes in thriller, as "plausible and authentic". The new director Anna Justice in the field of thriller was praised for the "high level of tension and the excellent actor management". Frank Preuss comes to a damning verdict in the WAZ. He writes of a "futile effort to create drama" with which even good actors allude against the disappointing overall impression. The simple script and the directorial work would "quickly sort out good and bad" and the expected spread boredom.
background
Arte has set itself the goal of improving the co-production of television films between France and Germany. To this end, topics are filmed from the point of view of both countries in order to reveal differences, but also similarities in the points of view. The film Day of Truth marks the beginning. It aired on Arte on January 8, 2015. Atomic energy was chosen as a common theme in order to address the largely different attitudes of the populations of both countries. Arte Vice President Gottfried Langenstein resolved the supposed contradiction with the question: "[What] ... could be more promising for an exciting film story than contradicting situations and characters?"
Vicky Krieps plays the investigating public prosecutor in this film. In the French equivalent, she can be seen as a geologist. Laurent Stocker , here in a supporting role as a nuclear engineer, plays the main character Antoine Degas in The Split Village .
Web links
- Day of reckoning in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Day of Truth ( Memento of the original from January 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Arte website, accessed January 8, 2015.
- ↑ TV tip of the day: “Day of Truth” (Arte) , website of the Association of Evangelical Publishers (GEP) gGmbH, accessed on January 10, 2015.
- ↑ Sueddeutsche.de: Fessenheim is to be shut down in 2020 , accessed on January 27, 2019
- ↑ Uwe Mantel: “Day of Truth” versus “Aktenzeichen” chanced. In: DWDL , January 15, 2015, accessed on January 16, 2015.
- ↑ Daland Segler: TV review "Day of Truth": Double breakdown in Dreyeckland . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , January 7, 2015, accessed on January 8, 2015.
- ^ Peter Luley: German-French TV experiment: The atomic double strike . In: Spiegel Online , accessed January 8, 2015.
- ↑ "He has nothing more to lose" in FAZ , accessed on January 16, 2015
- ^ Tilmann Gangloff: When the neighbor is energized In: Stuttgarter Zeitung, January 8, 2015, accessed on January 16, 2015.
- ↑ "Meltdown in front of the door" In: WAZ , accessed on January 16, 2015
- ↑ Tandem - Double Game , an article by Jan Freitag for ARTE magazine, arte website, accessed on January 8, 2015.
