Ein weites Herz: Schicksalsjahre einer deutschen Familie is a historical drama which premiered on German television (ZDF) in 2013.
The topic is the life and career of Isa Vermehren.
Here is some basic information about this drama:
** English title: A Big Heart
** Directed by Thomas Berger
** Screenplay written by Franziska Gerstenberg and Annette Hess
** Based on a book by Matthias Wegner
** Language: German – no English subtitles!
** Released on DVD in 2015
** Run time: 120 minutes
The cast includes the following:
** Nadja Uhl as Isa Vermehren (1918-2009)
** Iris Berben as Petra – Isa’s mother – a journalist
** Friedrich von Thun as Kurt – Isa’s father – a lawyer
** Alexander Khuon as Michael (1915-2010) – Isa’s older brother
** Max von Thun as Erich (1919-2005) – Isa’s younger brother
** Peri Baumeister as Elisabeth von Plettenberg (1911-2000) – Erich’s fiancée and later his wife
** Hinnerk Schönemann as Laurenz Weber – Isa’s boyfriend
Matthias Wegner is a German author and publisher whose biography of Isa Vermehren Ein weites Herz: Die zwei Leben der Isa Vermehren was published in 2003.
Isa was still alive when the author was working on the book. Matthias Wegner was able to meet with her and to interview her.
While this drama is based on a true story, it is not a documentary film. It is a dramatized version of events. Not everything happened exactly as shown here.
Some details may have been added or altered or excluded for dramatic reasons or practical purposes. But the basic story is true.
Since this drama is based on a true story, the basic facts are part of the public record. They are not a secret. This is why I feel free to mention some of them here.
This drama covers almost two decades. The story begins in 1933 and ends in 1951.
In 1933, Isa is going to graduate as a teacher. But 1933 is also the year in which Hitler and the Nazi Party come to power in Germany, and Isa manages to offend the authorities by singing a song about drunken sailors during the graduation ceremony.
There is no certificate for her. The authorities are so offended by her performance that they refuse to give her the certificate she has earned with her studies.
Isa and her family are not happy in the new Germany that is being built by Hitler and the Nazi Party. They are liberal democrats.
The father is a lawyer, but the laws are changing. Her mother is a journalist, but the rules of journalism are changing as well.
Isa is also a singer and a musician. She turns to singing instead of teaching. She performs in a cabaret where the material is balancing on the edge. The authorities do not like it. By 1935, the cabaret is closed down and some of the performers are arrested.
Isa is still at large, but even so she has problems: her boyfriend Laurenz is called up by the German army, but he does not want to fight for a Nazi Germany. The situation is getting dangerous for both of them.
Isa’s brother Erich is engaged to a woman who is Catholic: Elisabeth von Plettenberg. This is a source of conflict, because the Vermehren family is Evangelical or Lutheran. But Isa is inspired by Elisabeth. In 1938 she converts to the Catholic faith.
During the war, Isa’s brother Erich joins the foreign service as a diplomat. He is posted at the German embassy in Istanbul (Turkey was neutral during most of the war).
After a while it is clear that Erich is not really working for the Nazi Party. He is merely searching for a way to get out of Germany.
When he and his wife Elisabeth escape to England, the German authorities are furious and they take revenge by arresting Isa and her family.
The German word for this policy is Sittenhaft (family punishment). This means the family members of a suspect are held accountable for what the suspect has done.
Isa survives the war. After the war she joins a religious order. She becomes a teacher and later the headmaster of a Catholic school.
The story ends in 1951. Isa lives on for many years, but this part of her life is not covered in the drama. She retires from the school in 1983. But she is still active:
For more than ten years (1983-1995) she appears on German television (ARD) in a program which is called Das Wort zum Sonntag – The Word for Sunday.
What do reviewers say about this drama?
On IMDb it has a rating of 65 percent.
On Amazon Germany there are at the moment 16 ratings of this product; nine with reviews.
The average rating is 3.7 stars which corresponds to a rating of 74 percent.
If you ask me, the rating on Amazon is too high, while the rating on IMDb is quite appropriate.
Why?
Because there are some flaws.
Let me explain:
# 1. This drama covers only a short part of a long life. Isa was more than 80 when she passed away in 2009, but this drama covers only two decades of her long life.
# 2. We are told that Isa recorded some of the songs that she sang in the cabaret. A character in the movie says: “I have all your records.”
But we never see her in a recording studio. This part of her life is never shown in the drama. Why not?
# 3. Nadja Uhl is not a good singer. The song Isa sings at the graduation ceremony is not a good song. I am not offended by this song. I simply do not like it.
It is hard to understand that such a song would make Isa a popular singer in Germany in the 1930s. The musical aspect of the movie is not convincing.
# 4. How and why did Isa decide to convert to the Catholic faith? In the drama she meets with Elisabeth a couple of times and suddenly she wants to convert. The conversion is not really explained. This aspect of the drama is not convincing.
# 5. In the drama, Isa and other SS prisoners are rescued by American soldiers at the end of the war. This episode is not historically correct.
They were in fact rescued by a German officer Wichard von Alvensleben (1902-1982) who turned them over to the American forces.
After the war, Isa wrote a book about this episode - Reise durch den letzten Akt - which was published in 1946. Since then, it has been reprinted several times, most recently in 2005.
There is a documentary film about this episode. In 2015, this film Wir, Geiseln der SS was shown on television in Austria, France, and Germany.
I do not understand why the director wanted to change this part of the story.
As stated above, this drama is based on a true story. I like it and I want to give it a good rating, but as you can see, there are some flaws which cannot be ignored.
I have to remove two stars because of these flaws. I think this product deserves a rating of three stars (60 percent).
PS # 1. Thomas Berger is the director of several movies, including the historical drama Wir sind das Volk aka The Final Days from 2008.
PS # 2. For details about the liberation of the SS hostages in 1945, see the following article:
Michael Hanfeld,
“SS-Dokumentarspiel auf ARTE:
139 Gefangene auf der Fahrt ins Ungewisse,”
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,
7 April 2015
PS # 3. Isa’s brother Erich, who was born in 1919, converted to the Catholic faith in 1939. He married his fiancée Elisabeth in 1941. She died in 2000. He died in 2005.
*****
Ein weites Herz:
Die zwei Leben der Isa Vermehren
By Matthias Wegner
(2003)
***
No comments:
Post a Comment