"Ostfriesisch für Anfänger" is a German film from 2016, so this one will have its fifth anniversary next year. This was a theatrical release, little difference here compared to all the other German stuff I regularly review. But still, NDR was a prt of the production and this channel is where I watched the movie tonight. At 1.5 hours, it is not a long film at all and the closing credits easily last for five minutes (or more), so even shorter. The director is Gregory Kirchhoff, who was just 23 or 24 when he made this and it is not surprising that he does not have a big body of work yet given his age. What is surprising is that he got picked in the first place given the big name lead actor. But we will get to him a little later. The writers are not exactly really experienced in that department either. Sönke Andresen has written the screenplay for another film in 2013 and that was it. Franziska An der Gassen has not written any screenplays before 2016, but she has been a prolific producer for approximately a decade before her involvement with this film began. Maybe that is the area where she should say because the story here really did not impress me one bit. These two writers certainly did not bring out the best in each other here sadly and I honestly find it a bit questionable that An der Gassen perhaps used a bit her influence here as a producer to hire herself as a writer and maybe get a step in the door in that department in general, especially because it does not feel as if the talent is there. Okay, this film is listed here on imd with the primary language Low German. I am not sure if this is really the language that people spoke the most in terms of quantity, but it is either that or simply German. It is alright though that they go for the former here because this language also plays a major part in the story, so it is kinda appropriate. The lead actor is of course the man you see on the poster: Mr. Dieter (or Didi) Hallervorden. What can I say? I like him. Have known him for a long time and the photo on the poster is accurate because he is one pretty much every German knows and has known for decades. He was 80 when he made this film and is 85 now. Hopefully he will still have a few years. I can't be too harsh on him, even if I did not like the film too much. Also it is really unusual to see him with very long hair because that is something I don't think he has ever had in real life over the course of his 50-year career or so. He is the one and only big name here. Maybe huge German film buffs have come across Trauttmansdorff or Böttcher in other films, but even those are cast members that one can remember when seeing the faces, but the names do not come to mind immediately. I remember Trauttmansdorff right away for a more dramatic movie about domestic violence that she was in a few years ago. Much more serious material than this one here. As for Hamade and Stockhaus, I must say I am not familiar with them at all, even if they are among the key supporting players here.
Now as for the story. There were moments when I thought that two out of ten is more accurate than two out of five honestly, but in the end I shall be generous. I would say that the film is certainly closer to failure territory than it is to being a good movie that deserves a positive recommendation. Unfortunately. Hallervorden's by far best effort from the last decade will always be "Sein letztes Rennen" for me, a very touching movie that has it all. The only parallel I can come up with between these two films is that in here his wife has died too. It is a lot about character transformation, but it does not feel too credible honestly and really more for the sake of it all about a subject that just fits in nicely with political correctness and the political climate. i guess this is what they went for and relied on the most. But this alone obviously does not make it a good film. Not at all. It makes it even more embarrassing in my opinion because it feels to me as if they wanted to hide the absence of creativity in their craft this way by making it more pleasant for general audiences without actually having to deliver talent. So the very basic story can be summarized by saying that we have a guy from East Frisia and he lost his house to the bank and said house is used now for a group of immigrants (not refugees as they emphasize) with solid knowldge in their particular fields. The problem is these people do not speak German and arrive a week earlier than expected (pretty unrealistic honestly this lack of attention). And there are not really any teachers or people to take care of them, so they hire Hallervorden's character to teach them the language. Does that make sense? I mean come on he does not even have any certificates or education in this field I think. And Hallervorden loves his local language so much that he simply teaches Low German to the people from all areas of the world. Not actual German. Of course, this comes out eventually and many people are mad at the protagonist. His students not so much, however. They have started to really like him and his approach and his rough charm as well. But of course the consequence is that the students do not know how to speak proper German and they fail their test and that means they have to leave. Or does it? In a most convenien inclusion, we find out that the rulebook says Low German must be accepted as well. How did nobody know that? Felt really for pseudo dramatic purposes only because at that point they were sitting literally in the bus (or whatever it was) already and were almost gone. When they are allowed to stay, then they visit the protagonist at his wife's graveside and he is really happy that his new friends are still there and all his prejudice is gone and he no longer really wants to be isolated from people. And the icing on the cake is that his new friends then (help him to) buy back the location that means so much to him. That is pretty much it. A bit exaggerated and not really authentic for sure. But it is watchable for the most part and not failure territory. I mean there are moments when we find out about the implied love story between the two officials, but at least they keep love stories away from the group of immigrants. And from Didi's character too. It could have been worse honestly. But it could have been a lot better too. The truth is it is not even in the middle sadly. It felt really bland and boring for the most part. I know this may not be a valid criticism, but it kinds is I feel. I don't need explosions or anything, but I need at least a credible character study when it is such a slow movie. This tries to be one, but it is not. Watch something else instead. By the way, one final note: The word "plattdeutsch" (Low German) is also not really too common here in my language, at least not in German regions where it is not spoken at all. This is easily to see here too because in the title they did not use the word "plattdeutsch", but "ostfriesisch", which is not even a language, but the region where "plattdeutsch" is mostly spoken. This was of course done to make the title more memorable and also easier to understand what it is about. It was of course about getting people into theaters. Besides, I honestly would not have minded subtitles for the Low German parts, but there weren't any. Maybe it is just me, but I found it fairly difficult to understand. You can maybe compare it to Swiss German a bit, not in terms of style honestly, but in terms of how it is a version of German, but if you just know regular German, it can be pretty difficult to catch the meaning of phrases all the time. Enough now, you should skip the watch anyway as I wrote earlier, so please go for something else instead. Even if you really like Hallervorden, it is still on the underwhelming side.
Now as for the story. There were moments when I thought that two out of ten is more accurate than two out of five honestly, but in the end I shall be generous. I would say that the film is certainly closer to failure territory than it is to being a good movie that deserves a positive recommendation. Unfortunately. Hallervorden's by far best effort from the last decade will always be "Sein letztes Rennen" for me, a very touching movie that has it all. The only parallel I can come up with between these two films is that in here his wife has died too. It is a lot about character transformation, but it does not feel too credible honestly and really more for the sake of it all about a subject that just fits in nicely with political correctness and the political climate. i guess this is what they went for and relied on the most. But this alone obviously does not make it a good film. Not at all. It makes it even more embarrassing in my opinion because it feels to me as if they wanted to hide the absence of creativity in their craft this way by making it more pleasant for general audiences without actually having to deliver talent. So the very basic story can be summarized by saying that we have a guy from East Frisia and he lost his house to the bank and said house is used now for a group of immigrants (not refugees as they emphasize) with solid knowldge in their particular fields. The problem is these people do not speak German and arrive a week earlier than expected (pretty unrealistic honestly this lack of attention). And there are not really any teachers or people to take care of them, so they hire Hallervorden's character to teach them the language. Does that make sense? I mean come on he does not even have any certificates or education in this field I think. And Hallervorden loves his local language so much that he simply teaches Low German to the people from all areas of the world. Not actual German. Of course, this comes out eventually and many people are mad at the protagonist. His students not so much, however. They have started to really like him and his approach and his rough charm as well. But of course the consequence is that the students do not know how to speak proper German and they fail their test and that means they have to leave. Or does it? In a most convenien inclusion, we find out that the rulebook says Low German must be accepted as well. How did nobody know that? Felt really for pseudo dramatic purposes only because at that point they were sitting literally in the bus (or whatever it was) already and were almost gone. When they are allowed to stay, then they visit the protagonist at his wife's graveside and he is really happy that his new friends are still there and all his prejudice is gone and he no longer really wants to be isolated from people. And the icing on the cake is that his new friends then (help him to) buy back the location that means so much to him. That is pretty much it. A bit exaggerated and not really authentic for sure. But it is watchable for the most part and not failure territory. I mean there are moments when we find out about the implied love story between the two officials, but at least they keep love stories away from the group of immigrants. And from Didi's character too. It could have been worse honestly. But it could have been a lot better too. The truth is it is not even in the middle sadly. It felt really bland and boring for the most part. I know this may not be a valid criticism, but it kinds is I feel. I don't need explosions or anything, but I need at least a credible character study when it is such a slow movie. This tries to be one, but it is not. Watch something else instead. By the way, one final note: The word "plattdeutsch" (Low German) is also not really too common here in my language, at least not in German regions where it is not spoken at all. This is easily to see here too because in the title they did not use the word "plattdeutsch", but "ostfriesisch", which is not even a language, but the region where "plattdeutsch" is mostly spoken. This was of course done to make the title more memorable and also easier to understand what it is about. It was of course about getting people into theaters. Besides, I honestly would not have minded subtitles for the Low German parts, but there weren't any. Maybe it is just me, but I found it fairly difficult to understand. You can maybe compare it to Swiss German a bit, not in terms of style honestly, but in terms of how it is a version of German, but if you just know regular German, it can be pretty difficult to catch the meaning of phrases all the time. Enough now, you should skip the watch anyway as I wrote earlier, so please go for something else instead. Even if you really like Hallervorden, it is still on the underwhelming side.
