Härte

The true story of top athlete Andreas Marquardt, who became a brutal pimp, served eight years in prison, and through therapy came to terms with years of abuse as a child by his mother and now does charity work for abused children. The story is told by him and his girlfriend Marion, who for years was one of many who worked as a prostitute for him and is the only one who still stands by him today. The film dispenses with classic chronology and combines documentary interviews with stylized scenes. The result is a relentless portrait of a person who has learned to use strength as a survival strategy and only comes to terms with his past late in life. TOUGH LOVE is not an easy film, but a courageous confrontation with guilt, violence, and the possibility of change. TOUGH LOVE premiered in 2015 in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival, where it attracted a lot of attention for its uncompromising formal language and emotional impact. The film received the Berlinale's Siegessäule Audience Award and was also honored with the German Camera Award for Andreas Köhler's outstanding cinematography. TOUGH LOVE was presented and discussed several times at festivals in Montréal, Tel Aviv, and Moscow. Critics particularly praised the radical openness and compassion with which Rosa von Praunheim treats a subject that is rarely shown so fearlessly. A film that moves, provokes, and at the same time gives hope for healing. With Andreas Marquardt and his wife Marion Erdmann, in the scenes with Luise Heyer as Marion, Katy Karrenbauer as Marquardt's mother, and Hanno Koffler as the young Andreas Marquardt.