Feature film
Sommerhäuser (The Garden)
Director: Sonja Maria Kröner | Cast: Laura Tonke, Mavie Hörbiger, Ursula Werner, Günther Maria Halmer, Thomas Loibl, Christine Schorn, Inge Maux, Johannes Silberschneider | Language: German, with English Subtitles
During the hot and humid summer of 1976, a family’s communal garden becomes the scene for family dramas both big and small. While the adults find it impossible to agree on whether to sell the land, the children explore the garden and the mysterious neighbouring plot. What was supposed to be a happy holiday in a natural setting goes wrong right from the start, however: an old tree is struck by lightning and the power supply doesn’t work properly. And then news of a missing girl clouds the summer idyll.
Sommerhäuser by Sonja Maria Kröner is an intense and carefully observed family portrait, not to mention an atmospheric review of a childhood summer.
Sommerhäuser is a precisely observed snapshot in a perfectly constructed 1970s setting that reveals what makes family so important, and what makes it so tiring.
ZDF Neu im Kino
One of the best German films of the year!
Kulturmovies
Sonja Maria Kröner, born in 1979 in Munich, Germany, first studied literature and philosophy in Munich, and then script-writing and directing at the University of Television and Film. The Garden is her first cinema film.
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