Icarus Films will be teaming up with France’s leading film production and distribution company, Distrib Films, for the domestic DVD debut of director Wolfgang Gross’ Granny Nanny on June 15.
Distrib Films has been a rich source of French-language movies for the domestic market, but the company also has an eye out globally for quality film productions from other countries, most notably South America. However, they didn’t have to go too far afield as Granny Nanny is from neighboring Germany.
The film opened in Germany and Austria in February of 2020 to great reviews and excellent box office returns, but we all know what happened next. It ran merrily along theatrically for a solid month and then the international lock-down was sprung upon the movie-going world.
With the exception of a one-week, one-theatre arthouse run this past November in the United States, Granny Nanny remains virtually unseen. That all changes with this Icarus Films delight on DVD in mid-June.
Part comedy and part social commentary, Gross introduces us to Karin (Maren Kroymann — Hounded, The Wave, The Hairdresser, Bliss, etc.), a recent retiree (perhaps too early), who would like to travel, but her husband thinks hanging out at home is just fine. Bored out her mind, her Bohemian-like sister-in-law, Phillipa (Barbara Sukowa — Hannah Arnedt, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, Johnny Mnemonic) tells Karin about the hot-new trend in German parenting, the “Patenoma.”
Young professional couples, who are busy checking the various “life” boxes of career, marriage, kids — career, travel, career, career and career — have taken to hiring stand-in mothers to raise and take care of their kids. Kids, that are more of an inconvenience than a family bond. Such messy, noising things.
Now, Philippa’s charge is Leonie, a young girl whose parents literally have no time for her, but are very specific on how she is to be raised, what she eats and where she goes. Philippa has learned to ignore these requests.
Karin thinks that this is a good idea and signs up with the local agency and soon has two kids of her own. Jannik, who is all over the place (maybe on the spectrum; maybe ADD) and his too-hip-for-her-age sister, Merle. While it is chaotic at first, and the parents don’t seem to give a rip, Karin soon finds the kids “adopting” her as their parent.
And then there is Karin’s friend, a retired doctor by the name of Gerhard (Heiner Lauterbach), who is a curmudgeon … he’s miserable. He’s gay and very much alone since his life-partner has died.
He gets roped in and becomes a Patenoma as well … even gets a kid of his own to parent. A young boy by the name of Viktor, whose mother is a Russian immigrant and trying to hold things together. Viktor routinely gets his butt kicked at school and seems to have no coping skills, but Gerhard soon takes care of that. Ironically, he also begins to parent Viktor’s mom, screening her potential dates and helping her navigate her alien environment.
Each of these three Patenomas go about the parenting of their kids in different ways, which can be both funny and melancholy … Philippa, for example, teaches her “child” shop-lifting skills, not to respect authority too much and, if caught, have an out ready (Philippa simply puts on her Alzheimer's act and her little friend guides her gently back home, all a big misunderstanding of course).
Granny Nanny is presented in German with English subtitles.
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