00:28, Berlin. A young girl sits under her sheets with a flashlight and witnesses a loud argument between her parents. Her father is getting louder, her mother quiets down more and more and finally a blow falls. Boldly, she emerges from under her covers and tiptoes to the door. She carefully opens it and watches her father banging against the walls full of self-loathing. Shortly after he leaves the apartment.
Slowly, the girl steps out of her room. She walks past the devastated kitchen and looks at the mess left behind by her parents. Her gaze slides from the broken chair and broken plates on the floor to the ravaged dining table and the tipped-over wine glass. With her teddy bear firmly in her arms, she carefully enters the bathroom.
Behind the shower curtain sits her distraught mother with numerous bruises and a wine bottle in her hand. She whimpers anxiously. Speechless, the girl looks down at her mother. She tries to comfort but knows it´s not enough.
Hastily, she storms back into her room to pull out a ready-packed bag from under her bedside table and grabs the next edible thing from the fridge. Back in the bathroom, she begs her mother with a pleading look. The mother understands, but she can’t even look her daughter in the eyes. Thereupon the girl makes a surprising decision.
“Mature” was strongly inspired by a formative experience on vacation with my two friends and producers of the short film.
Late at night we witnessed a loud argument in the hotel room next door. A young couple started a heated argument. The man became louder and louder and the woman fell silent after some time. He hit her, she screamed at him, she tried to fight back and finally cried profusely. My friend and I were very worried about the woman and knew we had to do something. We called the receptionist and asked him in a whisper to call the police. But he refused because he wanted to preserve the image of the hotel. Later, one of my friends came along with the police. They spoke exclusively to the man, exchanged a few petty words with him and did not speak a word to the woman.
The whole team understood the importance of the issue, which is why everyone worked on the project with a lot of passion and dedication. I am aware that men are also victims of domestic violence, however, one must face the fact that, statistically, this fate simply affects significantly more women. It’s happening all the time, it’s happening behind closed doors, it’s real and yet it’s not talked about enough. With this short film, I hope to give a face to all the children or now grown-up children who grew up in such family circumstances.