Is it possible to have love, a dream job and a perfect family? In
PARENTS --the Goethe-Institut's German film choice for the European Union Film Festival Toronto on November 21-- director Robert Thalheim (AND ALONG CAME TOURISTS; WESTWIND), who is known for the authenticity of his storytelling, portrays the tumultuous everyday life of a modern big-city family. The film treats current global issues like parental leave, the so-called "work-life balance" and what the media hypes as “the modern man” -- realistically and with subtle humour. In addition to the brilliant child actors Emilia Pieske (Emma) and Paraschiva Dragus (Käthe), PARENTS is
impressively cast with Christiane Paul and Charly Hübner in the main roles.
Robert Thalheim on the tension between his two protagonists, Konrad and Christine:
Why does the father, Konrad, find it so difficult to separate from his children?
It is very hard for Konrad, who is the go-to parent for the kids, to dissociate from the children and to express his own needs. Actually, it’s long been a problem with female connotations, although it is quite naturally a consequence of being close to the children.
Since he’s been there for them every day for such a long time, of course it’s not easy to suddenly just change. That bad conscience, that pang of guilt when he closes the door behind him to do something on his own: that’s what fascinated me about it.
What conflict does Christine, the mother, go through in the film?
For Christine, it's more about the need to find her new role within the family in order to establish a new relationship with her daughters. She doesn’t do it by becoming a better, more sensitive "Konrad" and rediscovering her traditional “feminine” side, but, for example, by seriously explaining to her daughter what it is about her work at the hospital is important to her. Over the course of the film, she goes through almost more of a development than Konrad. She remembers what it is that she loves about Konrad, builds a new relationship with her daughters and realizes that she has to change something in her professional life. She dares to tell her boss that she needs to work less and suddenly realizes that doing so won’t ruin her career.
Born in Berlin in 1974, Robert Thalheim studied at the Konrad Wolf Academy of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg. He began his arts career even earlier as assistant director at the Berliner Ensemble in 1997. His first feature film, NETTO (2005), debuted in 2004 and he received several awards for it, such as the Dialogue en Perspective award at the Berlinale. His graduation film, AND ALONG CAME TOURISTS (2007) premiered at the film festival in Cannes, was nominated for the Deutsche Filmpreis and was Germany’s contribution by the Goethe-Institut to the 2008 European Union Film Festival Toronto.
image courtesy Kundschafter Filmproduktion GmbH
