Child's Play (1992)

Germany in the early sixties, somewhere in a poor suburb. The ten-year-old boy, Micha, is brutally beaten by his father for minor misdemeanors. He receives little support from other members... See full summary »

Director:

Wolfgang Becker

Writers:

Wolfgang Becker, Horst Johann Sczerba

Stars:

Jonas Kipp, Angelika Bartsch, Burghart Klaußner

4 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Jonas Kipp	...	Micha
Angelika Bartsch	...	Mother
Burghart Klaußner	...	Father
Matthias Friedrich	...	Peter / Micha's brother
Oliver Bröcker	...	Kalli / Micha's friend
Irina Lackmann	...	Rita
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Detlev Buck
Nadine Grenz
Brigitte Janner
Rüdiger Joswig
Johanna Karl-Lory
Evelyn Meyka
Bert Pesalla
Ernst-Georg Schwill
Michele Sterr

Storyline

Germany in the early sixties, somewhere in a poor suburb. The ten-year-old boy, Micha, is brutally beaten by his father for minor misdemeanors. He receives little support from other members of his family and so decides to wage a personal war against all of them. He joins other bullies at school to terrorize people for amusement, including his own little brother, Peter because his mother preferred him. He sets off with his inventive friend Kalli. When the mother finally leaves the father, the plot is heading for the catastrophe.

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Plot Keywords:

family relationships | children | childhood | teenage girl | 1960s | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Did You Know?

Connections

Featured in Century of Cinema: Die Nacht der Regisseure (1995)

User Reviews

Children's games are no child's play

This film tells the sad story of a childhood somewhere in Germany in the early 60s. When Micha's mother leaves his irascible father, he tries to prevent their divorce by any means he can think of, but his attempts to hold the family together lead to a catastrophe. The film shows in a brilliant way how pressure and violence is passed along to an inferior person: Micha's father beats his son because he's frustrated about the poverty they have to live in and Micha vents *his* aggressions by teasing his little brother or the senile grandma of his best friend Olli.

What I really like about the film (besides being moved to tears) is the realism and attention to detail in everything from dialogue to set-design. It's all dead-on. Even today children in Germany still tell the obscene "poems" which Micha learns from Olli ("Rot ist die Liebe, schwarz ist das Loch ..."). Another example: When they refurnish the room of Micha's granny copies of the "Völkischer Beobachter" (an infamous Nazi-newspaper) appear below the wallpaper, indicating that the Third Reich wasn't that long ago. Or: When Micha is told to bring some plums to relatives you can see that they have more exotic (and expensive) fruits in a bowl on the table, indicating the difference in the social position in a very subtle way. The script is full of these exact observations, so that you'll discover something new even the third or fourth time you see this little gem.

Details

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Release Date:

2 September 1993 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Child's Play

Company Credits

Production Co:

FFG Film- und Fernseh-GmbH, Royal Film, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1