Winter thief

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Movie
German title Winter thief
Original title L'enfant d'en skin
Country of production Switzerland , France
original language French
Publishing year 2012
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Ursula Meier
script Antoine Jaccoud
Ursula Meier
Gilles Taurand
production Ruth Waldburger
Denis Freyd
music John Parish
camera Agnes Godard
cut Nelly Quettier
occupation

Winter Thief (original title: L'enfant d'en haut , dt .: "The child from the top," English-language festival title: Sister) is a Swiss - French film from 2012. Directed led Ursula Meier , also the writer was involved. The film tells the story of the boy Simon who steals from tourists in a ski resort in order to earn a living for himself and his older sister. Winterdieb ran in the competition at the 62nd Berlinale and had its world premiere on February 13, 2012. He was awarded the special award Silver Bear. It was released in German cinemas on November 8, 2012.

Kacey Mottet Klein and Léa Seydoux at the preview of “L'Enfant d'en haut” in April 2012 in Paris

action

Twelve-year-old Simon lives alone with his alleged older sister Louise under precarious conditions in a shabby high-rise at the foot of a Swiss ski area. Louise, in her mid-twenties, has recently lost her job, is often out and about for nights with all sorts of guys and apparently prostitutes herself without financial success, while Simon earns a living and runs the household for both of them.

Simon earns his money with business thefts: Disguised as a ski tourist, he drives to the mountain station and steals high-quality equipment, clothing and skis, but also cash and provisions there with great brand awareness. He calms his conscience with the conviction that rich people can simply buy something new. He first sells the booty to his peers in his apartment block, later the self-confident and eloquent Simon is able to win an employee of the mountain restaurant, who surprised him, as a fence. Simon explains that he is alone in the ski area, sometimes with trips or business obligations of his parents, then again with a fatal accident.

During a joyride with one of Louise's lovers, Simon bursts out with the truth that Louise is actually not his sister, but his mother. With this he not only puts the lover on the run, but brings Louise, who never really wanted him and only carried him out of defiance and kept him, so against her that he then paid her all his cash - a three-digit sum - for it must be allowed to cuddle with her. His great unfulfilled longing for affection and tenderness becomes clear again and again in the film.

Finally, Simon's criminal business is discovered by the owner of the mountain restaurant, whereupon he loses his ski pass and is banned from the mountain station for life. This breaks the common livelihood. Louise takes on a cleaning job in a chalet, which she soon loses again because Simon, whom she has taken as a helper, cannot resist stealing the private property of the residents there too, despite her admonition, which is immediately discovered. Since Louise has convicted him, the two fight, in the end Simon is roughly rejected by Louise.

Convinced that he has finally been outlawed, Simon drives back to the mountain station where the season is just beginning and asks the departing seasonal workers whether he can move on with them. However, he is only laughed at and chased away again by the owner. He has to spend the night desperately on the mountain. When he took the cable car down to the valley the next day, Louise waves to him from an oncoming cabin: Despite their tense relationship, they cannot do without each other.

background

In winter thief is the second feature film by Swiss director Ursula Meier . In contrast to her debut, this time she is more committed to realism and made a socially critical film. Agnès Godard , who shot this film digitally for the first time, often used a handheld camera to stay close to Kacey Mottet Klein . The film was produced by Vega Film , Archipel 35 and Radio Télévision Suisse . The distributor for the French market is Diaphana Distribution , for Switzerland it is Filmcoopi Zürich . Winterdieb ran in the competition at the 62nd Berlinale and had its world premiere on February 13, 2012. Meier was the only director who was represented in the competition.

Reviews

Winterdieb received mostly positive reviews. Daniel Kothenschulte wrote for the Berliner Zeitung : “Ursula Meier is about the emotional flaws that she makes visually perceptible like a visual artist. By reversing an aesthetic order that is no longer questioned - here it is the well-organized world of alpine recreational sports - it makes something invisible visible: the human center, the emotional core of every civilization. "Andreas Kilb from the FAZ found the film shocking and the story as convincing. He came to the conclusion that Winterdieb was “in the right place at the Berlinale, even if you don't necessarily have to consider him a favorite for the Golden Bear.” For Christiane Peitz from Tagesspiegel , Winterdieb was one of the strongest entries in the competition. Above all, she praised the camera work. Daniel Benedict even named the film one of the favorites for the Golden Bear for the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung . In the film service it was praised that the “sparse, excellently played drama unfolds a moving mother-son story thanks to the well-thought-out imagery and musical design”, even if the “social symbolism remains somewhat striking”. Jordan Mintzer praised the film in the US magazine The Hollywood Reporter as a "solid coming-of-age - dramedy with strong social undertones". In particular, the performance of the young Kacey Mottet Klein was positively highlighted by many reviewers; wrote z. B. Andreas Borcholte on Spiegel Online : "Simon is [...] a great film character who is embodied in a moving manner by the skinny, sail-eared talent Kacey Mottet Klein, [...]."

Awards

In September 2012, Winterdieb was selected by a jury as the official Swiss candidate for an Oscar nomination in the category of best foreign language film at the Delémont-Hollywood Festival in Delsberg .

literature

  • Berlin International Film Festival (ed.): 62nd Berlin International Film Festival . Berlin 2012, ISSN  0724-7117

Web links

Commons : Winterdieb  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for winter thief . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2012 (PDF; test number: 135 640 K).
  2. ^ Daniel Kothenschulte: The truth in dented sheet metal: "L'Enfant d'en haut" and Jayne Mansfield's Car on berliner-zeitung.de on February 13, 2012, accessed on February 17, 2012
  3. ↑ Andreas Kilb: Mountain and Valley Films at the Berlinale - From the monastery through the world to hell on faz.net on February 13, 2012, accessed on February 17, 2012
  4. ↑ Christiane Peltz: When the gondolas carry trauma The boy on the slopes: “L'enfant d'en haut” in the competition on tagesspiegel.de on February 14, 2012, accessed on February 17, 2012
  5. ↑ Daniel Benedict: A child pays to cuddle - Meier's “L'enfant d'en haut” removes the difference between the generations on noz.de from February 15, 2012, accessed on February 16, 2019
  6. ↑ Winter thief. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 22, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Jordan Mintzer: Sister (L'Enfant d'en haut): Berlin Film Review on hollywoodreporter.com from February 13, 2012, accessed on February 16, 2019, original quote: “A solid coming of age dramedy with strong social undertones”
  8. ↑ Andreas Borcholte: Poverty drama "Winterdieb" - The ice-cold child on Spiegel Online from November 9, 2012, accessed on November 10, 2012
  9. ^ "L'enfant d'en haut" représentera la Suisse aux Oscars en 2013 from swissinfo.ch, September 20, 2012 (accessed September 30, 2012)