SAFE RECEIVES THE GRIMME PRIZE

Caroline Link wins the Grimme Prize Special for her outstanding achievement in working out the inner life of children in "SAFE" as a plot- and suspense-driven element of knowledge in the book and directing it together with the children.

The jury justifies the award: 

"Safe" leaves fascinating and irritating scenes in the mind: when six-year-old Ronja dresses up with lipstick and powder, the line between creative childish dressing up and her disturbing desire to please as a "woman" is blurred. While Valentin Oppermann (Sam) and Carla Hüttermann (Nellie) already have acting experience, Jonte Blankenberg as Jonas and Lotte Shirin Keiling as Ronja are not even in their teens yet. Caroline Link's direction succeeds brilliantly in staging the children in such a way that their behavior in front of the camera seems spontaneous and age-appropriate, although at the same time everything very consistently follows the soul narrative in its dramaturgy, which wants development and tension. Because of course, this is a trick, the adult audience is only there intellectually at an age-appropriate distance from the children. Emotionally, we enter - and return - to the children's world, in which emotional distress is revealed in a different way. As a story in the sandpit, for example, when they are raging, hesitating, distracted. Fictional storytelling in this year empowers children and young people in a special way. Caroline Link's series fits in with this - and yet is absolutely unique." (59th Grimme Prize 2023)

Written and directed by: Caroline Link
Production: Claussen+Putz Filmproduktion GmbH
Casting for children: Franziska Schlattner