Chef Meets Homeless: Criticism of ZDF TV Movie ‘On Thin Ice’ – Media

Berlin winters are cold. Coldest on records Average temperatures were less than five degrees, in addition to cold records on odd days, as in 1929, when the temperature was measured below 26 degrees in Berlin-Dahlem. It similarly turned icy on a February night in 2012 when the temperature in parts of the capital dropped to -24 degrees Celsius. Last winter, the Federal Association for Homeless Aid counted 23 people who died from cold on the streets of Germany.

In the frigid winter of 2012 in Berlin, one of them was a homeless person known to TV producer Beatrice Kram. ZDF movie on thin ice It is based on this personal Cram story. The producer found the man in her parking lot, where he was looking for a safe place. “We tried in vain to contact him and offered him help – he wanted to be left alone. The man died in temperatures of minus 15 degrees – we know nothing about him to this day,” says Cram. With the movie you want to “give it a story”.

She gave him socks and cocoa, but he did not wait for the savior

Contrary to reality, the hobo in the ZDF movie is a man by name: Conrad. He set up camp in the underground parking lot of chef Ira Rosenthal (Julia Kochitz), who accidentally drove him there one night. Thus begins the slow rapprochement of women with their home, children, and work, and the man who owns little more than a dog. She takes him to the doctor and sticks her nose in the car in disgust. Refuses to go to emergency shelter. She gives him socks, cocoa, and a new jacket, and she has to justify herself to her ex.

Conrad, the homeless, is given a name in the movie, but his story is inconclusive even in fiction (Director: Sabine Bernardi, Screenplay: Silk Zerse). One could criticize that, but in the end, in terms of what a ZDF TV movie can achieve, it is well established once again that you only know Conrad through IRA. Only from the perspective of a woman, for whom he becomes an annoying marginal character, and then somewhat meaningful in a life with enough other problems.

But Conrad was not waiting for a savior, and to Ira’s greatest disappointment, he was not interested in a new beginning. He once said anyone can become homeless. This logic follows on thin ice momentarily. When Ira finally loses her job as a cook, that must of course represent how fragile her bourgeois life is. But things are more complicated, and the movie doesn’t ignore that.

Played by Carlo Luebeck, this Konrad never looks like a street person, but mostly like a charismatic actor with a stooped pose and a winter jacket from the current season rubbed in with a bit of dust. Visually impressive on thin ice No, but he has some good moments.

“Why are you doing this anyway?” Konrad asks Ira when she wants him well again. “Until you disappear again,” she replied seemingly sarcastically. In the end, this is the most honest sentence that appears in this movie.

On Thin Ice, ZDF, Monday, 8.15 p.m.