BLIND AT HEART Noosa Sun Matinee Epic closing film.
Sun, 11 Aug
|Noosa Heads
Adapted from a best selling German novel, Blind At Heart is an epic that spans decades and is about the decisions people make in tumultuous times to survive. Helene has to change identity, forgo love and do the unthinkable as Germany crashes to defeat. "Richly textured."
Time & Location
11 Aug 2024, 2:30 pm – 4:46 pm
Noosa Heads, 29 Sunshine Beach Rd, Noosa Heads QLD 4567, Australia
About the Event
Blind At Heart film trailer HERE
MA 15+ 136min
Director: Barbara Albert. Cast: Mala Emde, Thomas Prenn,Max von der Groeben, Liliane Amuat
A better translation would have been The Blind Side Of The Heart.
This film is essentially about choices people have to make to survive. It's epic in scope as it covers such a dramatic period in Germany's history, but its instantly relatable to the viewer as Mala Emde is memorable and magnetic as the lead character Helene who at the beginning of the film, in childhood, is different to her siblings and not treated well by her mother who has mental issues. The children have to leave.
As an aspiring young medical student, Helene arrives in the exciting, roaring 1920s Berlin with her sister Martha who is much more carefree and they stay with their Aunt who is open minded and parties like the Nazis are never coming. Helene meets and falls in love with Karl and the world seems to be their oyster. But as the city’s carefree ambiance darkens, the course of Helene’s life takes a drastic, irreversible turn when the Nazis do take power. Karl is murdered by a brown shirt.
Working at the hospital gives her stability and independence and its where she meets a handsome Luftwaffe officer, Wilhelm who is smitten with her and who at first seems charming if stiff and not warm in the way Karl was. Through strokes of fate and the necessary cover-up of her Jewish ancestry, Wilhelm offers her marriage and a safe passage...the faustain pact being she must relinquish her identity.
When the marriage collapses and the war starts to go bad for Germany Helene must live with the constant fear of discovery, unmasking by Whilelm and the need to care for her son. As the Russians approach she makes a decision that requires a blindness of the heart.
Based on Julia Franck’s bestselling German Book Prize-winning novel DIE MITTAGSFRAU, (over 1 million copies sold) Director Barbara Albert’s adaptation is a touching and emotional portrait of one woman’s resolve to survive.
“Emde is magnetic in the central role.” Screen Daily
"A wonderful, taut drama with great character development." Chronicle.lu
" A handsome, richly textured work." Review Film.
OFFICIAL SELECTION - Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2024
OFFICIAL SELECTION - Tokyo International Film Festival 2024
NOMINEE - Best Film, Bavarian Film Awards 2024
About the Director Barbara Albert Albert is an accomplished film maker her credits being (Fallen (2006); Nordrand (1999); Mademoiselle Paradis (2017)) and starring Mala Emde (My Daughter, Anne Frank (2015); And Tomorrow the Entire World (2020)), Max von der Groeben (Kidnapping Stella (2019) to name just a few. Mala Emde can be seen on TV Series Shadowplay and won an award for her role in My Daughter Anne Frank.