THE RACE (DAS GROSSE RENNEN)

10-14 years

THE RACE is a heart-warming film about eleven-year-old Mary who, as a girl, is trying to make it in the boys’ world. But her dream of becoming a racing driver meets numerous obstacles.
The film maintains a wonderful balance between young Mary’s dream to be a racing car driver and the realism of the difficult financial times in which it is set and thereby touches on various provocative and significant topics for young teenagers such as: self-assertion and –realisation, family structures and gendered roles in society, prejudice, social exclusion and bullying, life in the country and conflict resolution.
It thus proves an excellent resource for the classroom and the workshop will offer room for debate and discussion with the help of several worksheets concerning the topics.

84 minutes, DigiBeta

Germany/Ireland, director: André F. Nebe , 2009, comedy

THE RACE tells about an Irish farming family collapsing while 11 year old daughter Mary is trying to make her dream come true: driving a go-kart and winning a race. Something she can only do with the support of her father, a grumpy farmer with enough problems of his own: agricultural crisis, his wife applying for a divorce and the sudden decline of fatherly authority. The film by André F. Nebe, starring debuting Niamh McGirr and Hollywood star Colm Meany as her father, is a true European co-production.

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