Die Auflehnung (2010)

Frank Wittmann is a fishery manager in a pond region in northern Germany. He did not want to take over his father’s fishery, but was forced to. He envied—and still envies—his brother Willy, who was able to go out into the wide world. Frank now lives with his wife, Sophie, and their daughter, Ute, on the family farm, half of which legally belongs to Willy. Making a living as a fishery manager takes hard work. Viral infections can sometimes drastically reduce the ponds’ fish yields. Now cormorants are eating the young fish and causing him enormous losses. He is not allowed to shoot them because they are protected under conservation regulations. But he cannot abide by that. He has to shoot at them to scare them off and stop them from descending on his ponds. Frank is now in serious financial trouble. His plan to convert part of the farm into guest apartments has swallowed up a great deal of money, but no guests have come. The bank is breathing down his neck, demanding repayment of the loans. His brother Willy is also in serious trouble. He was a respected and important tea taster for a large Hamburg tea-trading company, a job that brought him considerable wealth and many trips around the world. Now he has lost his sense of taste for the different teas. He resigns, to his wife’s fury. She cannot understand his honest, straightforward nature. He should exploit his high position, she says, and at least secure a large severance payment. When he continues down a path that means abandoning his former life, she leaves him. Willy therefore returns to the family farm for a break. Frank finds this an imposition: it is not just his old envy of his brother’s life, but also his fear that Willy might now demand money as well. But Sophie and Ute welcome Willy warmly and put him up in the guest apartment. There is another conflict in Frank’s fishery. Right at the beginning, we see Frank relentlessly chasing Bernhard Drews, who had only been collecting dead fish on the pond bank. After his parents died, Bernhard lived on the farm for nine years. Frank must have become almost a father figure to him. But then Frank suspected Bernhard of cheating in the fish trade. Bernhard thought the deduction from his wages was unfair, so he actually began selling fish on his own account. Frank then drove him off the farm. Bernhard became a nonperson in Frank’s eyes. Even Willy, whom Bernhard asks to mediate, cannot do anything to overcome Frank’s hatred. Bernhard has set up a mink farm and needs fish to feed the mink. Ute secretly gives him the fish scraps from the farm. The two are secretly a couple and want to get married. The many conflicts surrounding Frank come to a head: the cormorants keep multiplying. The bank has run out of patience. Henning Holmsen from the local police station is pursuing Frank over the shootings. Bernhard carries out attacks on his ponds and reveals the secret that he and Ute are together and want to marry. Willy also argues that Frank should not tie his daughter to the farm, as their father did to him: he should let her go to the city and study. The catastrophe comes when Ute discovers that Bernhard is cheating on her. She feels betrayed by him, and even used as a pawn in his dispute with Frank. In a fit of anger, she lets the mink loose from Bernhard’s farm. Bernhard, ruined, files a complaint against Ute and Frank. Frank wants Ute to apologize to Bernhard so that he will withdraw the complaint. Ute agrees to do so and even to use her savings to compensate him. She goes to Bernhard. But Bernhard cannot control his feelings. In the end, he rapes Ute. Ute shoots at him, deliberately missing, and then flees. When Frank goes to pick Ute up, he sees Bernhard’s house and mink farm engulfed in flames. Believing Ute is still inside the house, he rushes into the fire and rescues Bernhard. Back home, Frank learns from Willy that Ute is in the guest apartment. He tenderly comforts her there, apparently acceding to her wish to go to the city to study. Willy will take her place in the work, especially since he has used his wealth to take on the farm’s debts. At the very end, Frank can now say that he is glad Willy has returned to the farm.