MovieChat Forums > Knallhart (2006) Discussion > Secondary Characters

Secondary Characters

posted 17 years ago by jake14853
2 replies | jump to latest

Hi, I found 'Knallhart' accidentally but I enjoyed it a lot as a fan of German film. Thank you, you guys did a great job... I'm from the US so it was interesting for me to see a relatively realistic portrayal of urban life in Germany/Berlin.

I just have a question about the secondary characters in the film: namely the Mother, the young Turkish girl/love interest, and the Best Friend.

Did the mother almost accept work as a call-girl/prostitute, out of desperation? And did the police officer ultimately "rescue" her and her son by hooking her up with the new landlord (My other guess is that the two started dating, is that correct?)? How did the relationship between the main character and his love interest (the young beautiful Turkish girl) develop, if at all? Their time together on-screen seemed all too short. And what happened to the Best Friend and his little brother?

Maybe it's because I was forced to watch the subtitles, I wasn't clear on how their characters developed as the film progressed and came to a close.

Thanks in advance, I enjoyed your movie immensely. Cheers!

[–] shavor 17 years ago

Well the mother was kind of a hoe anyway since the only reason she was with the guy at the beginning was because he was rich. The police officer helping them move to Steglitz (where I live! :D) is essentially him saving them from a life of poverty and crime, and you are correct in that they do seem to have a relationship beyond friendship. You don't find out how the relationship between Michael and the girl develops.
Hope I was able to help, if only a little

[–] yveslanois 16 years ago

The Scene in the restaurant, where the mother dates this strange guy we never see, is her way of hooking up again with some man who has money. She is definitely desperate and used to being supported by a man. She isn't into working, she lived for a long time with this guy who throws her out. For us it was like this - she is functioning on one level, and the level is get money by being nice to a guy who likes you. Domestic prostitution.

You are right about the policemen. They start dating, and he is from the first minute kind of in love and tries to help.

The problem with the girlfriend is that there is actually no girlfriend. In Gregors novel there are mainly male characters and Polischka never falls in love. The director and the producer wanted Polischka to have a girlfriend. The screenwriters - Gregor et moi - didn't like the idea. But we put her in, gave her some space. In the final act of screening the director and the producer discovered that they ddidn't need the girlfriend but there she was. So they did a cutting and threw her out but not consequently enough, I think. So we have fragments of a loveaffair that actually doesn't exist.

In the end the best friend and his brother just disappeared and we didn't like it. The friends were a main and bigger part of the screenplay then what you see in the end. They had more power than the mother, but it was cut out too. You have to yield to the power of the moviemakers.

And the subtitels are not very good. I saw them at the festival and they really did some bad translation. So if you were confused sometimes I can understand that.

Hope it helped.