Mountain rescue service angry about the portrayal in the ARD film: "In no way does the film reflect reality"
Created: 01/02/2023 12:07 p.m
Jan Messutat (l), Maximilian Brückner and Verena Altenberger in the ARD film "Riesending - Every hour counts".
© Felix Vratny/Senator Film Production/BR/ARD/Degeto/dpa
The Bavarian mountain rescue service on sharp criticism of the makers of an ARD film about the use in the giant thing cave.
The film would discredit the rescuers.
Berchtesgaden – With “Giant Thing.
Every hour counts” the first broadcast a three-hour cave drama last Wednesday – and thus also drew many critics into action.
"Presenting the mountain rescue service as if they couldn't do anything, would leave the work to the others and then adorn themselves with foreign feathers - a bottomless cheek," writes a viewer on Facebook.
ARD film about giant dig rescue causes uproar - "In no way does the film reflect reality"
Oscar winner Jochen Alexander Freydank filmed the ARD two-parter.
It is a fictional work, but shows a real event in 2014: the researcher Johann Westhauser was hit by a falling stone in the Riesending Cave in Berchtesgadener Land.
He suffers a severe craniocerebral trauma, has to be revived several times and rescued from the cave.
Not an easy task for the more than 800 rescue workers: the Riesending Cave in the Untersberg is over 20 kilometers long and over 1100 meters deep, the longest and deepest cave in Germany.
Freydank's film exaggerates events and creates space for dramaturgical locations such as the cave itself, but also the headquarters from which the mountain rescue service coordinates the difficult rescue operation.
In reality, the Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service is not very happy with the way it is presented.
"In no way does the film reflect reality," says Thomas Küblbeck from the Marktschellenberg mountain rescue service, head of operations for the 2014 giant thing operation.
Producer Ulf Israel defends himself: "The production is a fictional work that was inspired by the accident, but does not intend to reflect the true events." Film is and will remain fiction.
By the way: Our Bayern newsletter informs you about all the important stories from Bavaria. Sign up here.
Speaker criticizes the presentation in the ARD film: "In the end, it's at the expense of the mountain rescue service"
"In the end, this is at the expense of the mountain rescue service," said Roland Ampenberger, spokesman for the Bavarian mountain rescue service.
A black and white world is drawn from the volunteer work.
In favor of the dramaturgy, the film adaptation deviated from the actual events several times.
The conflicts between cave rescuers and mountain rescue services would not have existed like this.
"We ask ourselves what the message of the film is supposed to be if there is a claim to reality - but at the same time an entire organization is discredited in order to create tension," says Ampenberger.
In the film, head of operations Bertram Erhardt, played by Maximilian Brückner, says: “We are the mountain rescue team.
We have everything under control.” But: Erhardt hesitated for days to save the injured man and the cave rescuers who had come from other countries want to leave.
In the ARD two-parter, the operations manager cuts a mercilessly bad figure in the chaos, is helpless, overwhelmed.
also read
Customer complains about package price of 32 euros: DHL reacts - and corrected immediately
READ
Thanks to the start-up: 23-year-old from Regensburg in the Forbes “30 under 30” list
READ
"Move back in with Mama": Garbage is simply in the hallway - Regensburger's collar is bursting
READ
It comes from Bavaria: The funniest cat video of all time?
"I'm dying of laughter"
READ
Drunk family man builds an accident and then flees with an injured 7-year-old
READ
Fancy a voyage of discovery?
My space
This is how the mountain rescue service saves people from impassable terrain
Mountain rescuers are silent about the big thing film - Interior Minister Hermann is critical
Erhardt therefore hands over the management to his colleague.
Meanwhile, in the cave, two doctors are trying to rescue the seriously injured man.
That should not have happened in real life.
In the credits, the names of the fictional protagonists are abbreviated and their lives are told in short biographies.
Reality and fiction become blurred, which even Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann denounces: “The film is not a documentary, but a modern fairy tale based on real events.
As far as the mountain rescue service is concerned, the film differs significantly from what actually happened.”
Several emergency services involved in the 2014 cave rescue did not want to comment on the ARD film when asked.
And cave experts who know the giant thing inside and out had previously refused to work with the TV team.
(K. PFEIFFER with dpa)
You can always read all the news from all over Bavaria with us.
News and stories from Bavaria can now also be found on our brand new Facebook page Merkur Bayern.