(SEMI FINALIST)
Original Film Title: The River Between Us
Writer’s Name: Sara Dahmen, Barbara Joosse
Country of Origin: United States
Country of Filming: United States
Language: English
Runtime: 113 Pages
Film Description:
n 1950s small town Wisconsin, MARTY is beheaded when tied and thrown onto the tracks of an oncoming train, leaving his fifteen-year-old daughter DEB an orphan. After Marty’s Will is read, the ferocious local police officer, GUNTER ignores it and forces to Deb live with his frigid wife, KRISTA and bullying son KURT.
Deb lives uncomfortably with Gunter’s family, and is taunted and bullied by Kurt at school. He accuses her of being crazy, and repeats the local belief that her father is a lying murderer who committed suicide. Deb struggles to come to terms with her new life – including helping Krista hand out hate literature at the high school sporting events.
When a teacher, MR BRICKMAN, assigns a report on local history, Deb heads to the school library with her class. She discovers a book on the town’s past with pages missing, and pockets it for further research. Another student, DANNY, sees her steal the book, but says nothing. Later, after fending off another round of bullying from Kurt, Danny and Deb form a tentative friendship.
Mr. Brickman takes the students to the Historical Society, where Deb tries to reconcile the damaged book with local newspaper clippings. Instead, she stumbles across an article naming her father Marty and a “Hanna Bauer” with old summer camps and a death…but just as Deb starts to jot notes, the Historical Director, OTTO – Gunter’s father – confiscates the newspaper. The next time Deb looks, it’s gone from the archives.
Undeterred, Deb goes in search of the mysterious “Hanna Bauer” and discovers HANNA living on the edge of town with her son – Danny! But Hanna, panicked, sends Deb away. Reeling in the dark, Deb stumbles across one of the old campgrounds. It’s still guarded. A dog attacks, injuring her badly.
Gunter discovers Deb is spending time with Hanna and Danny and forbids her to continue –Deb disobeys him, sneaking out in the wee hours or during school. When Gunter learns of Deb’s duplicity, he violently whips her. He and other townsfolk also begin harassing Hanna with hate mail, reminding Hanna how her silence keeps Danny safe.
But Deb’s not giving up; she’s in too deep. At Hanna’s house, she spots 1930’s photographs of Hanna and Marty…and Gunter, too. She snoops in Gunter’s attic, discovering a scrapbook, revealing one of the camps was a Hitler Youth Camp in the 1930’s. Desperate to know if Marty was a Nazi and heartbroken with her life at Gunter’s house, Deb begs Danny and Hanna for help, especially as she notices a strange man – an undercover FBI Agent, STAN—following her and others in town. Though worried about retelling her past, Hanna eventually gives in.
Hanna’s story begins in 1936, when families in the local German community of Hamilton sent their children to Camp Fredrick along the Milwaukee River. The idyllic camp allowed the children to celebrate their German heritage with games, songs, hiking, and language classes.
She eventually meets BENNO, a quiet, poetic boy. As the summer progresses, Hanna and Benno fall in love. They build a glorious tree fort along with Marty.
That winter, however, news from Germany proves disturbing. The Hamilton community begins to choose sides. Unrest and violence among the adults culminates in the creation of a second camp across the river from the first: Camp Berlin, a Nazi Youth Bund camp to indoctrinate young German-Americans and prepare them for combat with marching drills and military commands. Hanna returns to Camp Fredrick, while Benno is sent to Camp Berlin. Although the two lovers promise to meet at the river each night, Benno soon stops showing up as he becomes enthralled with the rhetoric of the Bund.
Deb learns that Marty’s will dictates that she live with Hanna, not Gunter. She goes to where Marty died and discovers a button from a police uniform. Between the evidence of a struggle and conversations she overhears between Gunter and others, Deb approaches Stan, who had been working with Marty as a witness to the secret past and current illicit white supremacy activities in Hamilton. With Deb’s evidence, the FBI arrests all the adults implicated in the camp’s crimes and Marty’s killers, including Gunter, Mr. Brickman, and others. Deb receives closure knowing Marty was killed in the line of duty. She clears his name and puts his murderers behind bars.
Deb moves to live with Hanna and Danny, just as Marty had wanted. Hanna finally reveals the last, explosive secret: in 1937, she and Benno had reconciled and Hanna conceived Danny on a summer night. Immediately after, Benno falls into the river while crossing back to the Bund camp. This is witnessed by Marty, Hanna and Gunter. Gunter has a chance to save Benno but refuses, believing him to be unworthy of rescue, effectively starting the cycle of secrets and death.
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