"Unterm Birnbaum", which means "Under the Pear Tree", is a German television film from 2019, actually a really new release because this film just had its premiere less than four hours ago here. And as I believe the cast sounds pretty interesting, I decided to give it a watch. Actually even for really minor characters, they got gifted actors and they were basically too good for the part and the role just did not offer enough to show their talent. The only cast member I wasn't too familiar with who did not have a nothing role was the priest. Maybe the reason why everybody wanted to be on board is that the director here is Uli Edel, who is over 70 years now and has made movies almost since the 1960s. Impressive for sure that he soon has been working for 50 years on films. He is an Emmy nominee, actually pretty recently less than 5 years ago, but his probably most known careerf effort is still the Oscar-nominated "Der Baader Meinhof Komplex". So he has worked with many stars really during his long career. As a consequence it is no surprise at all how many really established and successful actors appear in this 90-minute movie, many of which you usually see on the big screen most of the time. I will not go into detail about the names here as you can check out the cast list yourself and if you are not too familiar with German films and actors, let me say that cast-wise this is perhaps the most star-studded small screen release from 2019 here in Germany. The writer is Léonie-Claire Breinersdorfer and while she is nowhere near her father successes and popularity at this point, she is still making a name for herself. This film will help. Of course, it must be said that this is not an original screenplay, but the movie is based on a novel by really famous German 19th century author Theodor Fontane. It's pretty unlikely that students at school nowadays never have a work by him as part of their curriculum, just to show you how famous he is. Still I must say that "Unterm Birnbaum" I have never heard of before seeing this film. I see though that this is not the first time it was turned into a movie, but maybe the outcome here is the most known effort so far and the one other version I found seems almost forgotten now, even if it still exists somewhere out there, probably also because it is really old already, from the 70s.
Now let's take a more specific look at this film we have here. I gave a very vague genre summary already in the title of my review, but let me say that we have a couple who struggles really hard financially and they are in danger of losing their home and business because of that. This is partially their fault too though because the wife bought many expensive clothes and the husband lost a lot of money gambling. This is explained through both struggling mentally because they lost their child. So you can say they are victims to some extent too. However, they are not victims at all when they (or rather he, but she keeps quiet and supports him) come up with a scheme to kill the guy who comes to collect money from them. This murder plot and how it is supposed to solve their problems and also how it is really the perfect plan for them to also get away without punishment seemed a bit difficult to understand for me and I was pretty confused if this actually could have worked out this well too in real life. Somehow I don't feel it could have. Anyway, there is a cop who smells something is wrong and he is on them and sees right through them and what they did. However, the two are really smart and manage with the help of a surprise discovery to get him into trouble because police did a lot to the couple and still they have no real evidence, even if they think they did after all this digging in the garden. So they get away with it. This is where the crime story basically ends. But fate, maybe karma, takes its toll on them as the woman quickly is back to suffering from depression as it was all just too much for her and around the 75-minute mark it is an eye for an eye and she dies as a consequence. This is too much for the husband too and even if you can say everything negatuve in the world about him, there are mitigating factors. He lost his child, he was about to lose his existence and finally he lost his wife too. Too much to take and it turns out to be two eyes for an eye even. Or biologically four eyes for two eyes if we are precise. There are some sub-plots and supporting characters like Thalbach's involvement with everything (and it is a family affair really again for her, I knew she made stage plays with her descendants, but now also in movies), but in the end it is really abll about Karl and Koschitz. I was a bit surprised the latter is first credit here because I felt the film was slightly more about Karl's character, but well it is alright for both are clearly lead. The cop is played by Striesow and he gets some nice screen time too, even if halfway into the film he disappears again until almost the end. Sure you can find some struggles in terms of realism like how he is exactly the one to come to the house at the end again or that the film came short from other perspectives like how the flashback sequences to the actual killing did not feel as haunting and memorable as they could have, but overall it is a pretty good work I'd say. I think Fontane's story is really good and really helped them here and the base material made it almost impossible to screw up the story, but it needs to be said that the modern take by Breinersdorfer feels also right for the most part. I have not read this tale by Fontane, so I cannot elaborate on parallels and differences between film and base material, but there is also no need to really in order to enjoy this movie. A great watch it is not, but competent execution from start to finish. Probably better than at least 80% of other small screen releases here in Germany from this millennium. Go see it. Thumbs up.
Now let's take a more specific look at this film we have here. I gave a very vague genre summary already in the title of my review, but let me say that we have a couple who struggles really hard financially and they are in danger of losing their home and business because of that. This is partially their fault too though because the wife bought many expensive clothes and the husband lost a lot of money gambling. This is explained through both struggling mentally because they lost their child. So you can say they are victims to some extent too. However, they are not victims at all when they (or rather he, but she keeps quiet and supports him) come up with a scheme to kill the guy who comes to collect money from them. This murder plot and how it is supposed to solve their problems and also how it is really the perfect plan for them to also get away without punishment seemed a bit difficult to understand for me and I was pretty confused if this actually could have worked out this well too in real life. Somehow I don't feel it could have. Anyway, there is a cop who smells something is wrong and he is on them and sees right through them and what they did. However, the two are really smart and manage with the help of a surprise discovery to get him into trouble because police did a lot to the couple and still they have no real evidence, even if they think they did after all this digging in the garden. So they get away with it. This is where the crime story basically ends. But fate, maybe karma, takes its toll on them as the woman quickly is back to suffering from depression as it was all just too much for her and around the 75-minute mark it is an eye for an eye and she dies as a consequence. This is too much for the husband too and even if you can say everything negatuve in the world about him, there are mitigating factors. He lost his child, he was about to lose his existence and finally he lost his wife too. Too much to take and it turns out to be two eyes for an eye even. Or biologically four eyes for two eyes if we are precise. There are some sub-plots and supporting characters like Thalbach's involvement with everything (and it is a family affair really again for her, I knew she made stage plays with her descendants, but now also in movies), but in the end it is really abll about Karl and Koschitz. I was a bit surprised the latter is first credit here because I felt the film was slightly more about Karl's character, but well it is alright for both are clearly lead. The cop is played by Striesow and he gets some nice screen time too, even if halfway into the film he disappears again until almost the end. Sure you can find some struggles in terms of realism like how he is exactly the one to come to the house at the end again or that the film came short from other perspectives like how the flashback sequences to the actual killing did not feel as haunting and memorable as they could have, but overall it is a pretty good work I'd say. I think Fontane's story is really good and really helped them here and the base material made it almost impossible to screw up the story, but it needs to be said that the modern take by Breinersdorfer feels also right for the most part. I have not read this tale by Fontane, so I cannot elaborate on parallels and differences between film and base material, but there is also no need to really in order to enjoy this movie. A great watch it is not, but competent execution from start to finish. Probably better than at least 80% of other small screen releases here in Germany from this millennium. Go see it. Thumbs up.
