Closed Season

The year is 1942. Fritz and Emma are hiding Albert, a Jewish fugitive, at their remote farm. Since their marriage has stayed childless, Fritz asks Albert to sleep with his wife and father a child in his place. The film does not present this request as an agreement; it makes visible that the hidden man’s life is in the hands of the people in that house and what refusing would mean. Emma’s say in the bargain is limited too, and the account does not cover that over. Three people staying in the same house builds an order in which fear and debt are folded into each other. The film looks at the relation of power set up indoors while the war goes on outside. It clears nobody and blames nobody alone. Brigitte Hobmeier and Christian Friedel appear in Franziska Schlotterer’s hundred minute German film, completed in 2013.