Platzspitzbaby - Blu-ray

Film: For many years, the largest open drug scene in Europe existed in the middle of Zurich. After this was dissolved in 1995, the addicts were driven out of the city. This includes Sandrine (Sarah Spale) and her eleven-year-old daughter Mia (Luna Mwezi). The two move to a small town in the Zurich Oberland. Mia has hopes that everything will be better here. But her mother keeps falling back into old habits and the girl also finds it difficult to make friends at her new school. Therefore, Mia repeatedly escapes into a dream world, where she talks to an imaginary friend and makes plans for a happy future with her mother. In Lola (Anouk Petri), Mia then finds new friends who give her strength to cope with the difficult life with Sandrine. But Mia's mother just can't manage to stay clean and the situation threatens to escalate....

Inspired by the autobiographical novel "Platzspitzbaby" by Michelle Halbheer, director Pierre Monnard tells the moving as well as harrowing story of a girl who grows up in the drug milieu and is robbed of her childhood by her mother's addiction. In Switzerland, the drama was a huge success with more than 300,000 moviegoers. The incredibly strong performance of Luna Mwezi alone makes this absolutely deserved. The girl delivers an absolutely authentic performance that really breaks your heart in some moments. You feel how much Mia is hurt by her mother's behavior, but you also feel the unbroken love for her and the hope that eventually everything could be okay.

Here and there the film heads for some clichés, but they can often still be circumnavigated in time. The staging is full of heaviness and dreariness, but also lets a few glimmers of childlike lightheartedness and hope shine through again and again. This prevents the audience from being completely dragged down despite the rather depressing story. The appearance of Mia in a school musical was also very well solved. This is not seen in the film itself. Why, becomes clear in the end credits, when the song is heard, which the girl sang during the performance. There it also becomes clear why it was so important for her to take part in the musical.

"Platzspitzbaby" is not an easy film. You have to be able to get into it. If you can, you get a really strong drama that stirs and saddens, but never drifts into complete hopelessness. Great acting and very well staged and therefore also: absolutely worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The contrasts seem slightly exaggerated and the color scheme is determined by bright tones. The image sharpness is on a good level, although especially in darker moments details can seem a bit washed out. The audio is in a restrained Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, but this fits the mood of the story very well. For a small indie production like this, it's all perfectly satisfactory!

Extras: Except for the trailer, there are unfortunately no extras.

Conclusion: "Platzspitzbaby" is a moving drama about a girl who struggles to maintain her childhood while life with her drug-addicted mother forces her to grow up far too soon. Great acting and sensitively directed, this is quite emotional and stirring arthouse cinema! The Blu-ray presents the film in good picture and sound quality, unfortunately there is no bonus material. The bottom line here is clearly a: recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp