Reunion with a stranger
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Reunion with a stranger |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2010 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Niki Stein |
| script |
Thomas Kirchner , Niki Stein |
| production | Beatrice Kramm for Polyphon Film |
| music | Jacki Engelken, Ulrik Spies |
| camera | Arthur W. Ahrweiler |
| cut | Corina Dietz |
| occupation | |
| |
Reunion with a stranger is a German TV film from 2010 . The post-war drama, which takes place in rural southern Germany in the mid-1950s, is about a war returnee who takes on someone else's identity and yet is overtaken by the past. Directed by Niki Stein , who wrote the script together with Thomas Kirchner .
action
Liesbeth Steiner lives with her little son in a village in the Black Forest. She had met the boy's father, Max Steiner, in Berlin in 1945 and became his wife a few days later in a war marriage because his leave from the front ended the next day. In the Black Forest, where Max had taken over his parents' farm, Liesbeth came to live with his family.
But the young woman and their son are only tolerated on the family farm, especially Steiner's sister Margarete considers his bride to be an inheritance sneak. After the end of the war, Max Steiner was taken prisoner by the Soviets and was considered missing. Liesbeth, who remained only a wedding photo of her marriage apart from the wedding night, waited in vain for his return at the train station whenever new war returnees were transported. As long as the brother entitled to inheritance cannot take care of the farm, the farm is run by Margarete on behalf of the family. But the longer Steiner's absence, the more Liesbeth's status as his wife dwindles. When grandfather Steiner, who was very fond of his grandson and daughter-in-law, dies, Margarete demands the house for herself and her husband Georg, and her mother. Liesbeth has no choice but to be degraded to a maid and move into the room above the stable with her son.
When Max Steiner arrived in his home village in 1955 after the “ return of the ten thousand ” negotiated by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer in Moscow , the return of the last German prisoners of war , Liesbeth was overjoyed. But she meets a man completely changed by war and imprisonment. After the long separation, the two carefully approach each other again. The cocky, formerly convinced Nazi , known to be quick-tempered , now shows himself purified and from a calm, almost meek side, and thus irritates some in the village community. After an initial shyness, he only meets little Josef, who is touchingly taken care of by the returnee. He seems to have a hard time recognizing old friends, but Max can remember details from the family history well. The mother, who carefully kept all his letters from the days of the war, is convinced of the return of the beloved son, while the sister harbors doubts about his identity, for example when she takes offense at a dispute with her brother about the future management of the farm , and, perplexed by his reaction, openly tells him that Max from earlier has now chased her from the yard.
Liesbeth suspects that her husband may be different from what he pretends to be, but all these years she has longed for his return too much. Regine, who used to work as a maid at Steiner's farm, also began to have doubts when the man who once violated her suddenly met her in a friendly manner. At one point, she gathers all her courage to gain certainty and, due to the lack of physical characteristics, realizes that a stranger is standing before her. Finally the man admits to her that he is a comrade of Max Steiner and that he did not survive being a prisoner of war. Regine is so relieved that she not only keeps the truth to herself, but publicly for him and Liesbeth, and takes sides against Margarete. Just as even skeptics are beginning to make their peace with Max, one day an old war comrade of Steiner turns up in the village with Heinrich. He recognizes the fraud and in turn tries to capitalize on it. When the wrong Max does not respond to Heinrich's demands, he makes his knowledge public. Margarete believes that she has found an ally against Max in Heinrich. After her mother's death, she took up one last trump card: Steiner once described his involvement in mass murders in letters to his mother. While Liesbeth continues to stand by her alleged husband, the late returnee should now be tried. The innocent teacher Gottfried Reincke from Transylvania suddenly sees himself , who during the years in Russian camp imprisonment dreamed into the life of his fellow prisoner Max and - deprived of any future prospects in his home country due to the war and the decisions of the Potsdam Conference - assumed his identity after Steiner's death has faced charges as a war criminal .
background
Author Thomas Kirchner takes up motifs from the story of Martin Guerre , who returned from the war , which happened in France in the 16th century, but relocates the plot to the Black Forest of the Adenauer years. The material was filmed in 1982 with Gérard Depardieu and Nathalie Baye in The Return of Martin Guerre . In 1993, Richard Gere and Jodie Foster played the leading roles in the Hollywood remake Sommersby , which shifts the plot to the post- American Civil War .
The first broadcast of the film took place on May 5, 2010 in the program of the first . Reunion with a stranger achieved a market share of 21.3 percent as the winner of the day with 6.57 million viewers. The two main actresses Silke Bodenbender and Nina Kunzendorf also stood in front of the camera for the film Until nothing remains , under the direction of Niki Stein .
criticism
“A drama about the wounds the war left in areas where there was no fighting. A film about mental changes that can hardly be repaired in the face of the war. "
“Director Niki Stein and screenwriter Thomas Kirchner cleverly relocated the historic case of Martin Guerre, who returned from the war […], to post-war Germany. Against the background of collective repression and slow denazification, the transformation of the returned Nazi into a democratic fine spirit takes on an ironic note. [...] At first glance, the past is not dealt with in this contemporary history sheet. [...] But from the blazing fifties present, Thomas Kirchner succeeds time and again in uncovering the traces of the totalitarian system without cheap flashbacks. […] Even when you meet a stranger again , the upheaval is made clear by economic aspects: between archaic inheritance law and modern fattening animal husbandry, between old customs and new agricultural equipment, there is an economic reorganization. So the ARD drama turned out to be a duel between the two leading actresses Silke Bodenbender and Nina Kunzendorf, who […] as maid and farmer [struggle] for power and farm, for status and harvest. "
“Director Niki Stein, who also wrote the book with Thomas Kirchner, finds ways out of the well-known outside in front of the door desperation, the failure of the returnees due to the ruthless saturation of those who stayed at home. Peter Davor […] plays the wrong man and brother with a clandestine distance that tries to heal the fraud caused by the war with private fraud. In the actress duel, Davor becomes the laughing third. "
“The story naturally also bears traits of the Heimatfilm, even if Stein does without the usual ingredients like kitsch, sentimentality or juicy images of nature. However, only one minor character speaks dialect in the village community, which is still completely implausible in the middle of the Black Forest. In any case, the film does not reach the intensity of Stein's last productions ('The Great Tom', ' The Automatic Death '). As always with this director, the leadership of the actors is remarkable. "
“ Reunion with a stranger is a homeland film about the homeless. Against the backdrop of a perfect Black Forest world, some pedal to finally get firm ground under their feet, while the others are desperately trying to forget the war. But instead of taking the struggle for existence to the extreme, the film inconsistently relies on love and renunciation. Although [Niki Stein] keeps the melodrama on a low flame, unfortunately the ambivalence of the heroes falls victim to the final ethical cleansing. "
Web links
- Reunion with a stranger in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Verena Friederike Hasel: Homecoming with Obstacles , Der Tagesspiegel from May 5, 2010
- ^ "Dresden" and Sat.1 without a chance ,quotemeter.de from May 6, 2010
- ↑ Reunion with a stranger. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Christian Buß : homecoming drama on ARD: Gogol instead of Goebbels , Spiegel Online from May 5, 2010
- ↑ Duel of the women . In: Der Spiegel . No. 18 , 2010 ( online ).
- ↑ Reunion with a stranger on Kino.de
- ^ André Mielke: A Heimatfilm about the homeless . In: Die Welt , May 5, 2010