Goethe-Kino Cinema: The Ordinaries – Film by Sophie Linnenbaum

A lovingly dystopian cinema-fantasy as a parable about inequality, racism, and discrimination. With English Subtitles.

Paula’s greatest wish is to become a main character. To achieve this, she trains at a special school. Soon she will take the final exam—one that, if she passes, will separate her from the supporting characters and the outtakes. She will have her own storyline, her own emotions, and a personal music score. Unlike her mother, an extra who always blends into the crowd or the background—and certainly unlike the outtakes, who exist without music or any right to their own story Paula will have a life of narrative significance. Her monologue for the exam is based on the loss of her father, an extraordinary main character. But why is there no trace of him in the “Archive”? Why is his flashback missing from the shelf? Paula sets out on a journey—a search that leads her into the world of the discarded, the miscast, the wrongly subtitled, the asynchronous, and the black-and-white.

As this synopsis suggests, Sophie Linnenbaum’s debut film takes us into a world of its own—one where cinema becomes a parable for social inequality, racism, and discrimination. She creates this world with remarkable inventiveness and attention to detail: from a distinctive colour palette to imaginative inventions like a “heart reader” that translates emotions directly into music, and countless film references, including a Lassie cameo. Everything follows its own internal logic and makes this reflection on who has the right to have their story told a deeply enjoyable experience.

Germany 2022, color, 120 min., with English subtitles.

Director: Sophie Linnenbaum. With Fine Sendel, Jule Böwe, Henning Peker, Noah Tinwa, Sira-Anna Faal.

Please note that we do not show any advertising and that the programme starts on time.

Image credits: THE_ORDINARIES / Bandenfilm / Jonas Ludwig Walter

About Sophie Linnenbaum

Sophie Linnenbaum was born in Nuremberg in 1986. After graduating from high school, she studied psychology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. While still a student, she began working as a playwright in 2007 with the children's book author Thomas Klischke on children's and youth plays. In 2013 Linnenbaum began studying directing at the Babelsberg Film University. Her student short films have screened at numerous national and international festivals, such as the 60-minute documentary 60 Jahre in 60 Minuten (2014) and the multi-award-winning short feature film [Out of Fra]me (2016).

Her four-minute documentary Meinungsaustausch, which she realized together with Sophia Bösch, was made as part of Michael Klier's university project "Research Refugees" and premiered at the Berlinale 2016. It won the FFA's Short Tiger Award and was invited in this context to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. In the same year, Linnenbaum won the German Short Film Award for Pix (2017), which shows the life of a boy in the form of a fast-paced series of photographs. Her other works include the fairytale-like, multi-award-winning short film Das Mensch (2019) and the 75-minute documentary Väter Unser (2020), in which six people tell stories about their fathers.

In March 2021, Linnenbaum began shooting her feature-length graduation film The Ordinaries. The film premiered at the 2022 Munich Film Festival, where it won the New German Cinema Award for Best Production and Best Director. At Filmkunstmesse Leipzig 2022 it won the Audience Award and at Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern it received the DEFA Foundation Award. At the Mainz Festival Filmz, the Exground Filmfest Wiesbaden and the First Steps Awards 2022, The Ordinaries was awarded Best Feature Film. In March 2023 the film had its regular theatrical release. (Source: filmportal.de, edited)

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