The Keeper (2018)

The love story of a young English woman and a German PoW, who together overcome prejudice, public hostility and personal tragedy.

Director:

Marcus H. Rosenmüller

Writers:

Marcus H. Rosenmüller, Nicholas J. Schofield

Stars:

David Kross, Freya Mavor, John Henshaw

2 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
David Kross	...	Bert Trautmann
Freya Mavor	...	Margaret
John Henshaw	...	Jack Friar
Harry Melling	...	Sergeant Smythe
Michael Socha	...	Bill Twist
Dave Johns	...	Roberts
Barbara Young	...	Grandma Sarah
Chloe Harris	...	Betsy
Mikey Collins	...	Alf Myers
Gary Lewis	...	Jock Thompson
Dervla Kirwan	...	Clarice Friar
Angus Barnett	...	Clive Thornton
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Max Befort	...	Poll
Achim Bogdahn	...	Referee
Stephan Buschmann	...	Spectator Fan from ManCity

Storyline

The Keeper tells the extraordinary love story between a young English woman and a German PoW, who together overcome prejudice, public hostility, and personal tragedy. While visiting a PoW camp near Manchester at the end of WWII, Margaret Friar, the daughter of the manager of the local football team, notices young German soldier Bert Trautmann. Her father is so taken by Bert's prowess as a goal-keeper that he gets him out of the camp to play for his local team. Margaret and Bert's love blossoms despite local hostility and resentment of the German PoWs. In the meantime, Bert's heroics in goal are noticed by Manchester's City Football Club. Rather than going back to Germany like nearly all the other camp inmates, Bert marries Margaret and signs for Man City. His signing causes outrage to thousands of Man City fans, many of them Jewish. But Margaret wins support from an unexpected direction: Rabbi Altmann, a Man City supporter who fled the Nazis, who publishes an open letter opposing the ...

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Plot Keywords:

german abroad | year 1944 | year 1945 | year 1951 | prisoner of war | 

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Taglines:

He won her love and our hearts and minds.

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Romance | Sport | War

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The Belfast football team Glentoran's stadium, the Oval was used for exterior shots covering as the old Maine Road football stadium.

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Goofs

Friar's trips to the camp to collect Bert are filmed in very hilly country, echoing the cliche of rural England. In actuality the landscape between St Helens and Makerfield, where Trautmann was interned, is fairly flat, and would have been quite industrial even at the time.

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Quotes

Bert Trautmann: I'd rather have danced with you than stood on the battlefield.

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Connections

Featured in Granada Reports: 21 March 2019: Evening Bulletin (2019)

User Reviews

The Decades don't change we like our heroes to be Saints

My Review The Keeper rating 7:5

It's unusual but this is almost 2 reviews in one unintentionally though but both The Keeper and The Last Quarter Documentary have issues in common.

The Keeper or Trautmann as it's known on IMBD is based on a true character .

I'd never heard of Bert Trautmann why would I? I've never been into football heroes English or Australian.

This week though I'm much more knowledgeable about 2 footballers Adam Goodes ,the famous Sydney Swans footballer after watching the excellent and confronting documentary The Final Quarter and The Keeper about a famous Manchester United Goal Keeper Bert Trautmann.

Both these men talented Sporting heroes sustained continuous insults and crowd abuse booing and jeering at their matches and media publicity reporting negatively about their character and ethnicity.

Bert Trautmann a released German Prisoner of War and extremely talented goal keeper for his participation in the 2nd World War as an Iron Cross awarded Luftwaffe Pilot . Australian Adam Goodes an indigenous First Nation football hero who dared to take a proud stand of Solidarity with his people and in doing so exposed himself to the ugly underbelly of racial vilification and continual booing and insults from the mass crowds at his matches.

The Keeper is a very good film, not great but only a few are these days however it's extremely entertaining and interesting and even if you're not a football fan of great human interest.

I read up a little about the true life events of Bert Trautmann and the script is pretty factual regarding the period of his life that the movie covers ,which saw him play as goalkeeper for Manchester City from 1949 to 1964.

Trautmann is played so well by a very handsome charismatic German actor David Kross who I remember from the excellent 2008 award winning movie The Reader .Freya Mayor gives a lovely performance in the role of Margaret, Bert's first wife and John Henshaw is also very impressive as Margaret's father Jack.

Good directing ,good script ,good acting interesting story and proof again that attitudes and prejudices remain the same even with decades of time separating them and that the ugliness of an angry crowd is a very scary and disturbing mass of negative emotions.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

UK Germany

Language:

English German

Release Date:

2 October 2020 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Keeper

Filming Locations:

Munich, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

EUR11 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,916,514

Company Credits

Production Co:

Lieblingsfilm, Zephyr Films, British Film Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39:1