"Ella Schön – Family Ties": ZDF-Herzkino with Annette Frier

The eighth episode of the ZDF series with Annette Frier tells of emotional dependency and could benefit from football in “First”.

Frankfurt – It is of course a coincidence that the eighth “Ella Schön” episode is not against a Sunday thriller, but against a soccer game, because when it was shot, the ZDF could not count on a possible increase in viewers; but maybe some “Tatort” fans take a look at the “second”.

The “Herzkino” does not have a particularly good reputation, at least among the discerning audience, but the main actress in “Ella Schön” is at least Annette Frier. So it is a good thing that the title character introduces himself at the beginning of the film: The woman is a highly talented lawyer, but has Asperger’s Syndrome; Lack of social skills and the inability to compromise have regularly thwarted all career hopes.

Some time ago fate took her from Frankfurt to Fischland: After her husband’s death, it turned out that her husband also led a second life in the second home there. Because second wife Christina (Julia Richter) and her children have a right of residence for life, the two women get along surprisingly well after all sorts of initial problems and little Klara (Zora Müller) is just adopting the strange Ella as a second mother, she finally stays on the Baltic Sea, especially since she can do a legal clerkship with her father’s lawyer Kollkamp (Rainer Reiners); She also fell in love with the Greek-born electrician Jannis (Joseph Heynert).

TV review: “Ella Schön” on ZDF is about emotional dependence

So much for the previous story, which, similar to the ARD Medicals intended for the same audience, “Die Eifel Practice” or “Practice with a Sea View” is told in every episode; in addition, Ella is confronted with a self-contained legal challenge. In “Family Ties”, the village shop owner, who is friends with the two women, becomes the main character in the episode: Henni (Gisa Flake) is beaten with a brother who could be benevolently described as a badass. The subject of the film is emotional dependence: Although she knows that all her efforts to help Axel (Max Beck) on the right path are in vain, Henni spares neither expense nor effort. Her hippie mother (Gitta Schweighöfer) is of no help because she completely ignores the fact that her son is a good-for-nothing. When Henni covers up a crime by Axel, she even faces a prison sentence.

Much more interesting, however, is the horizontal level, because Elke Rössler, who takes turns with Simon X. Rost on the scripts, continues the story of the last episode (“Land unter”): Christina has taken in her childhood sweetheart. Musician Nils (Marc Ben Puch) is the sire of her almost grown-up son Ben (Oscar Brose), but left her with the child at the time. Ben was happy to finally get to know his father, but he doesn’t like the fact that Nils is now interfering in his upbringing; and Klara complains that the newly in love mother no longer has time for her.

More than just solid: The TV review of “Ella Schön” on ZDF

Without further ado, the two offspring show solidarity with Ella, who in turn doesn’t like Nils because he messes up the established structures. Since Christina doesn’t want to be forced to choose between the two, she arranges an appointment for two at which Ella summarizes her life so far for Nils; Nevertheless, the two of them do not become friends. To make matters worse, Jannis made his childhood sweetheart pregnant while visiting his old homeland and wants to face his responsibility.

All of this may not sound particularly earth-shattering, especially since Sunday on ZDF is primarily supposed to end the weekend in a pleasant way, but it is more than just solid in terms of craftsmanship (Holger Haase also staged the last three episodes) and, above all, played very appealingly . Annette Frier has the seemingly simplest role, because she basically just doesn’t have to move a face; the makeup also emphasizes her robotic facial expressions.

“Ella Schön” on ZDF: Annette Frier has to suppress emotions

It’s probably not as easy as expected, especially since the Cologne native has a natural warmth that she has to consistently suppress for this role. Ella is also a real challenge linguistically, because Frier has to present her dialogues completely emotionless. Haase and cameraman Hendrik A. Kley have of course provided a nice summer look, after all, magnificent landscape shots are a trademark of the “Herzkino” films, but the careful work of costume and set design is also worth mentioning. (Tilmann P. Gangloff)

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