Underdogs (2007)

Movie
Original title	Underdogs
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	2007
length	94 minutes
Age rating	FSK 6
Rod
Director	Jan Hinrik Drevs
script	Jan Hinrik Drevs
production	Ralph Schwingel ; Stefan Schubert
music	Frank Wulff ; Stefan Wulff ; Hinrich Dageför ; Henning Stoll
camera	Peter Przybylski
cut	Nikolai Hartmann
occupation
	Thomas Sarbacher : Mosk; Clelia Sarto : Gloria Cornelius; Kida Khodr Ramadan : Doner kebab; Ingo Naujoks : Peter Prell; Philipp Baltus : Tom; Thorsten Merten : Forster; Vladimir Tarasyanz : Vladimir Kiriakov; Patrycia Ziółkowska : Famke Preminger; Christoph Grunert : Flower; Hark Bohm : Mr. Guard; Peter Jordan : State Secretary Büchner; Henning Schimke : Dethloff; Karsten Kretschmer : Seger; Luca Maric : Paco; Marc Zwinz : Shell;

Underdogs is a German feature film from 2007 that was co-produced by the television stations NDR and arte . The world premiere was on September 13, 2007 at the Oldenburg Film Festival , and it was released on July 24, 2008. Arte showed the film on August 21, 2009 as a free TV premiere.

action

Prisoners Mosk, Prell, Döner, Forster and Kiriakov are given the opportunity to take part in a program for training guide dogs in prison. For this purpose, the candidates are carefully examined and the six most suitable are selected from the inmates. The program to socialize inmates with the help of animals originated in the USA and the positive interaction between animals and humans has already been successfully tested there. The prison director Gloria Cornelius therefore also wants to introduce it in Germany. The first advantage for the selected prisoners is that they can move to a separate prison wing. There everyone receives a Labrador Retriever puppy , for which they are now personally responsible. Mosk, who takes part almost reluctantly and only at the special request of the State Secretary, does not find proper access to his animal. With his dismissive attitude, he initially made little progress in training. There is a lot at stake for the other participants in the project, because if only one fails, the entire program is considered to have failed. Accordingly, Mosk is not in a good position with them. Even after a few weeks, he still has not managed to get his dog to trust him. He only abandons his negative attitude towards the animal when his dog threatens to die of poisoning. Only now does he notice how dear to the dog he has grown. When he got it back from the veterinary clinic a few days later, he was allowed to sleep on his lounger for the first time, something that Mosk had previously strictly forbidden him. From now on, Mosk puts a lot more effort into training, which pays off for everyone else and they all pass their first exam.

The prisoners must soon realize that they cannot keep the dogs forever. The dogs complete the last part of their training with their new owners and thus leave the prison. Mosk finds it extremely difficult to part with his animal. But the other inmates also “suffer” and take their frustration out on each other. As a result, Mosk ends up in the infirmary, from where he manages to escape and immediately goes in search of “his” dog and kidnaps the animal. However, when he found out that the new owner was waiting every day where the dog had "run away", he gave it back to her and went back to the penal institution himself voluntarily. The next training program is already waiting there and Mosk is starting a new dog, just like the other prisoners.

background

The shooting took place in the correctional facility Bützow , in Hamburg and in Lübeck . The specialist advice for using dogs was provided by dog trainer Marco Heyse.

Jan Hinrik Drevs had met this New York project “Puppies behind bars” a few years earlier, which had shown that the upbringing of dogs had a positive effect on prisoners.

Reviews

The lexicon of international film came to the conclusion: "Despite its comedic traits, it is a serious examination of everyday prison life that largely avoids clichés."

Kino.de assessed: "While elsewhere jail films deal with hard arguments, innocent people locked up, escape attempts and lethal injections, in Jan Hinrik Drevs' German film 'Underdogs' everything is under the sign of rehabilitation." nice to be true, but after all it is [...] not a dramatic prison film, but a light comedy with familiar entertainment value. "

Award

The German Film and Media Assessment gave the film the rating of Particularly Valuable and stated: “This ambitious and original relationship film [is] characterized by its dense narrative style, a successful arc of suspense, sharp dialogues and very atmospheric images - pointedly long, atmosphere creative tracking shots, which capture the mood in jail with excellent nuances. The cast of actors, who are well-painted and always figure-appropriate, manage to bring Knastis' outsider life across in a realistic manner. "

Web links

Underdogs in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Underdogs at filmportal.de

(with trailer and photo gallery)
Underdogs at prisma.de

Individual evidence

↑ Release certificate for underdogs . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , June 2008 (PDF; test number: 114 424 K).
↑ locations at the Internet Movie Database retrieved.
↑ Facts and background at Kino.de, accessed on March 10, 2018.
↑ Underdogs. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 3, 2017 .
↑ ^a ^b film review at Kino.de , accessed on March 10, 2018.

[FSK-1] Release certificate for underdogs . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , June 2008 (PDF; test number: 114 424 K).

[2] locations at the Internet Movie Database retrieved.

[3] Facts and background at Kino.de, accessed on March 10, 2018.

[4] Underdogs. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 3, 2017 .

[kino-5] film review at Kino.de , accessed on March 10, 2018.