"Nur eine Frau" or "Die Frau auf der Straße" (sounds as if she was homeless, but there is a totally different reason why she is on the street) or "A Regular Woman" is a German movie from 2019 that aired on television today and that is definitely a bit surprising because I think it hasn't even been nine months since this had its theatrical release and it was not pay-TV where it was shown today. But first things first: The director here is Sherry Hormann and she has been making films since the early 1980s, so has worked for almost 40 years in the industry and experience shows here and she is definitely among the key reasons why this became such a good film. Her writer here is Florian Öller and he has "only" written screenplays for little over a decade (according to imdb), but it's nice to see a (mostly) small screen filmmaker for once, who does not have many cheesy stupid unrealistic romance films in his body of work (we call them Schmonzetten here in Germany), so definitely looking forward to his future projects. His script here indicates that a long big screen career is definitely possible. The script here is an adaptation of the book by Deiß and Goll. I have not read the latter, so I cannot say anything about parallels and differences, but I'd honestly be surprised if the book was not good looking at how good the film was. This movie runs for 90 minutes and the central character Aynur is played by Almila Bagriacik, an actress born in Turkey, bit she has been in German movies for a long long time already. And rightfully so because she plays her part very well. It is pretty telling that her first performance from ten years ago was in a film named "Die Fremde", which is one of my favorite German films of all time and that one deals with the subject of honor killings as well justg like this one here. But we talked about that Kekilli film on another occasion, so let's focus on the one we got here now.
This is the story of a woman in her 20s, who is physically and emotionally tormented by her family. The reason is that she does not follow her religion and all that comes with it, but tries to lead an independent and joyful life. No need to say which reaction this is about. The fact that there is some Turkish language in here makes it easy to guess. I don't want to get too much into detail about the general religion aspect here, but it needs to be said that every Muslim who exactly follows the Koran, will act like the radical people in this movie. The political Koran I mean with that because there are segments about the cruelest violence against everybody who is not a believer (or follows another religion). This violence also extends to basically all areas where tolerance is needed, be it transgender people, gays, whatever. You name it. And last but not least women. This is what this film is about. There are many examples for that. Just one: A good wife gladly accepts to be beaten. Or how she is not mourned in the end because the shame she brought upon her family. Unreal. And so disgusting. I am really happy this film was made. It elaborates on maybe the most crucial subject in society right now and I find it genuinely worrying that it is especially women, who ask for tolerance when it comes to certain religions after seeing how this religion treats females. And it is almost all females and not just exceptions. And what happens if they do not obey is what we can see in this film. Honestly I must say that with the very one-sided ways in which German television (especially ARD, ZDF etc.) report on the entire issue, I was genuinely surprised they showed this film at all and also so quickly after its theatrical release like I said earlier. But I guess it is telling that they showed it at past midnight, a time when the easily influenced are probably long in bed already. But let's not get into detail about that any further. I am glad anyway that it was shown. And I really liked several of the approaches they gave this film. It is not a crime thriller or so. We find out right at the beginning the shocking fact that Aynur is not one of these women that are safe and sound, but that she is lying on the ground and was shot and killed by her own brother. So you could think that maybe it it a story about which brother did it. I mean there are enough for sure that could have done it. But no, we find that out immediately as well. It's not about who did it at all, at least not in terms of suspense. But it shows that even if it is about your own sister (or daughter), there are aspects of horror that are more important thank loving your sibling (or child) and that is genuinely worrying.
I mean there are minor flaws too, like for example the acting from the supporting players is okay, but never that great. Or I felt Jacob Matschenz is a much better actor than he could show us here. But these flaws are really just secondary to the importance of the film or subject. Except for the female protagonist, it is never really a film about individual performances either, but about the subject overall. I am glad it received some awards attention, even if I think it should have been much more, but I guess the subject here was probably still too uncomfortable for most awards bodies. Anyway, the other approach I liked was the constant inclusion of voice-overs by the main character after her death and how she leads us story-wise to the tragedy about to happen. This was nicely combined with a list of statements, official statements even, that are considered grounds for an honor killing. And still they made this very theoretical side extremely accessible and normal and easy to understand also for people without sucha background, like how she elaborates on these, for example quickly says that the first two do not apply, i.e. she did not refuse to marry and she was still a virgin before marriage. Next up, however, are those that do apply. It involves literally all aspects of her life. She worked in a profession that is still heavily dominated by men (or wanted to work there), she flirted with guys, she had boyfriends, she dressed like the average young German woman, she did not obey her brothers and parents when they told her to change her life etc. The last scene before the killing (her quote about how she is entirely self-determined when it comes to all aspects of live inclusing who she has sex with) was the negative icing on the cake for her brother. But of course, there was a lot before that too as you can see during this film that really fley by for me and felt a lot shorter because of how tense and courageous it is. The saddest thing about this is really that this is all based on an actual character, who died back in 2005, so 15 years ago and by that long time you can see how difficult it may be for filmmakers to receive funding when they make a film like this that does not go well with the mainstream media's approach on the subject. But now it is there and I am so happy it was made and brings this horrible tragedy back to our minds. Also the family deserves to be exposed for what they did to the young woman and I hope they find out about this movie (after fleeing to Turkey like cowards) and are really angry over it. I just hope everybody who worked on this (actors and filmmakers) will be safe.
Th ending is of course extremely unhappy and with that I do not only mean the killing, but also the last 10-15 minutes that are about the court proceedings. It also shows that not just the one who pulled the trigger, but that all kinds of other characters in here are severe criminals how they try to threaten and blackmail another character into lying for the murderer and giving him an alibi. Luckily, the truth comes out. Unluckily, the court/judge really messes up. Still the film went out at least on a bit of a high note showing us that the girl is not forgotten and never will be with the references to her friends. And also there is even a more specific happy ending that tells us that the family did not get custody for the child of the woman they killed so ruthlessly and that instead the baby was adopted by people whose love is real and not based on religion. I thought the very last words were a touching thing of beauty here how she says she loves her child before the closing credits blend in. Okay what else can I say about this one? Also I want to pay attention to the one brother the protagonist early on calls the person from her family that is closest to being a friend to her and that summarizes it very well because it showed things how they should be. He was still a Muslim, but cared for her and especially for her safety with the foreshadowing that she is in danger and should leave everybody behind. Religion came second for him. Then, on a more despicable note, it was shocking to see how these men of reeligion were creating so much hate and that they were smartg enough to do it in a slightly hidden manner, like then the one guy says it is not allowed to kill people for religious reasons here in Germany and then adds something along the lines of "but what if we were in an Islamic country". This was really well done by the writers here I must say. I found it impressively how they managed to strike all the right notes and include amazing attention to detail from beginning to end of this movie. It's closer for me on a perfect 5 out of 5 than a good 3 out of 5. An absolute must-see, especially in the year 2020. Highly recommended and I hope people learn something from it.
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