The Chosen Ones

The Chosen Ones (2014)

Die Auserwählten

In the late 70s, young Petra Grust begins teaching at the progressive Odenwald School. She is flattered by the trust placed in her by its widely respected headmaster Simon Pistorius. But gradually certain incidents at the boarding school begin to unsettle her. Petra then realizes that Pistorius is abusing Frank, a 13-year-old. When Frank is told that he has to spend school holidays with Pistorius, he tries to commit suicide. Petra tells Frank's father (the chairman of the school's governing body) but he believes Pistorius instead of his own son. Petra fails to convince people of the man's true nature. 30 years later, Frank goes to Petra, who has long since left the school and has stopped teaching altogether. He has never been able to speak about what happened but now, after the suicide of another pupil, he is no longer willing to remain silent. He wants Petra to bear witness at the school's forthcoming anniversary celebrations.

Date of release
2014-10-01
TMDB
5.1 / 10 (17)
Runtime
1h 29m
Genres
TV Movie, Drama
Director
Christoph Röhl

Casting

Interesting facts

The Chosen Ones is a 2014 drama television film directed by Christoph Röhl. It was premiered at the Munich Film Festival in 2014 and was first broadcast on 1 October 2014. The film tells the story of a well-publicized child sexual abuse scandal at the Odenwaldschule, a German private boarding school known for its progressive education.

Production

The Chosen Ones is a fictionalized account of a sexual abuse scandal that took place at the Odenwaldschule. The abuse first came to light in 1998 when two former pupils reported their abuse. Their story appeared in the Frankfurter Rundschau but was not reported on by other media outlets. The story resurfaced in 2010 when it was revealed that more than 130 pupils had been sexually abused by and at least 8 teachers in the 1970s and 1980s.

Director Christoph Röhl was an English tutor at the school from 1989 to 1991. In 2011 he dealt with the same subject matter in the documentary film We're Not The Only Ones (German: Und wir sind nicht die Einzigen). After lengthy negotiations, the board of directors at the Odenwaldschule granted the filmmakers permission for their film to be shot on their premises.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended