Im Prinzip Familie

Filmstill The Family Approach

The Family Approach

Im Prinzip Familie
Daniel Abma
German Competition Documentary Film,
DOK im Knast,
School Screening
Documentary Film
Germany
2024
91 minutes
German
Subtitles: 
English
Audio Description
World premiere

When parents can no longer fulfil their duty of care, the children’s world often falls apart. Nothing stays as it was. Suddenly it is no longer mum or dad who are in charge but the youth welfare system. Daniel Abma followed a youth housing group in a rural area over several years, showing professional educators who want to give five boys between the ages of seven and fourteen what they need most urgently, day by day: security, orientation, a home.
The documentary focus is not on the children but on those who take the parents’ place. They sometimes remind us of Don Quixote tilting at the windmills, for there is a diffusion of responsibility between school, youth welfare services, and absent mothers and fathers. Words fail when adults do not keep appointments, when those in charge capitulate in the face of racist bullying and propose some “time out” – for the bullied boy – in a psychiatric facility. It would be easy to denounce these mechanisms, but that is not the point Daniel Abma wants to make. His observation, both emphatic and reserved, looks questioningly into the gaps in the system – with those who are in danger of falling through and those who try to fill them with affection. He makes us suspect that the answer is not to close all the system’s gaps. It is people who are there for other people and take responsibility.


Luc-Carolin Ziemann

Contains mentions of child abuse, mental health conditions, racism

Trailer DOK Leipzig Logo

Screenings & Tickets DOK Leipzig Logo

29.10.
#214
Cinestar 2
Im Prinzip Familie
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29.10.2024
Cinestar 2
#214
Im Prinzip Familie
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Calendar
30.10.
#351
CineStar 7
Im Prinzip Familie
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30.10.2024
CineStar 7
#351
Im Prinzip Familie
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30.10.
JSA Regis-Breitingen
Im Prinzip Familie

Free entry

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30.10.2024
JSA Regis-Breitingen
Im Prinzip Familie

Free entry

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Calendar
31.10.
#461
Passage Kinos Astoria
Im Prinzip Familie
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31.10.2024
Passage Kinos Astoria
#461
Im Prinzip Familie
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03.11.
#723
CineStar 4
Im Prinzip Familie
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03.11.2024
CineStar 4
#723
Im Prinzip Familie
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Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Director
Daniel Abma
Script
Daniel Abma
Cinematographer
Johannes Praus
Editor
Jana Dugnus
Producer
Britta Strampe, Laura Klippel
Sound
Alexandra Praet, Christoph Walter
Sound Design
Alexandra Praet, Roman Pogorzelski
Score
Henning Fuchs

Contact DOK Leipzig Logo

Main Contact
Britta Strampe
info@bandenfilm.de
German Distributor
Camino Film
Nominated for: VER.DI Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness, DEFA Sponsoring Prize, Gedanken Aufschluss Prize
Winner of: Gedanken Aufschluss Prize, ver.di Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness