The feature film Because you belong to me gives an impressive insight into the worlds and perspectives of the parents, the child, the grandparents as well as the legal side of the court and lawyers.
He does not accuse, does not condemn, but depicts the protagonists in their distress - father, mother and above all little Anni as a child between the two. After her parents separated, Anni has a good relationship with both parents.
Little Anni lives with her mother and also feels at home with her father and his new partner. But the relationship is steadily deteriorating. Anni keeps getting unsettling signals from her mother. Weekends at Dad's are canceled due to "misunderstandings". For Anni it seems as if her father is responsible for it. It goes as far as deliberate manipulation when the mother moves house and changes the daughter's cell phone number. As a result, Anni no longer has the option of contacting her father. If Anni calls her father, she only ends up on the mailbox of her mother's second cell phone. Anni doesn't know anything about this, but is told that her father is probably no longer interested in her. This leads to her refusing contact with her father. The viewer recognizes what is happening and gains an insight into all processes. A conversation between the mother and her lawyer is shown, in which he explains exactly what she has to do to advance the alienation. The lawyer's aim is to escalate the conflict between the parents as much as possible. On the other hand, the film shows a conversation between the youth welfare worker and the father. The youth welfare worker makes it very clear that this is a case of parent-child alienation and thus abuse of the child. In court, on the other hand, she recommends, like the expert, to temporarily suspend contact between Anni and her father. A suggestion that the court followed and with which the professionals involved fatefully left Anni alone in her distress. Anni is caught in the conflict of loving her father but having to reject him towards her mother. Over time, Anni loses her positive feelings and memories of her father, which makes the court decision all the more questionable.
In addition to the excellent acting performance (Julia Koschitz as the mother, Felix Klare as the father, Lisa Marie Trense as Anni), the film impresses above all with its authenticity. As shown in the film, tens of thousands of parents and children feel powerless and helpless year after year. Numerous parents and children recognized themselves in the film and felt that the public understood what had happened to them for the first time. The film was first broadcast on ARD on February 12, 2020 and received the Bavarian Television Award in the categories Best Actor (Felix Klare) and Best Screenplay (Katrin Bühling), as well as the 3sat at the Baden-Baden Film Festival. Because you belong to me brought the subject of parent-child alienation to a broad audience for the first time in Germany. The film makes the misery, the suffering, the desperation and the pain of those affected tangible and tangible.
Wikipedia entry and trailer for the film
In a subsequent discussion , experts exchanged views on how to deal with cases of parent-child alienation and where the limits are. It was discussed where the legislature can create framework conditions and, above all, how the local specialists can intervene to protect the children. The aim is to ensure that the children are exposed to as little stress as possible and are protected as best as possible. It became clear that "doing nothing" or looking the other way to "let things settle down" is not an option that protects children from abuse through parent-child alienation.
