Justine Bauer – “Milk into the fire”: Unadulterated view of young country life

Your debut film »Milk into the fire, ”tells of young women and their life as farmers. The work is not autobiographical, but they grew up on a farm, an ostrich farm. What experiences could you bring in?

Definitely dealing with the animals. My parents were the first to discover such a new trend for ostrich meat for themselves in the mid -90s. We had meat cattle that are not as time -consuming as dairy cattle. But we as siblings had to be on alert because of thunderstorms and often help when the cows broke out at night or in front of the school. I also learned how important family is. That was the case with this film too.

To what extent?

We only had 30,000 euros available. So my father took two weeks free so that he can manage the agricultural machinery. My mother did the catering and was a seter. My brother took care of the trailer, my sister was an animal trainer and made a stunt in a rain barrel. And my husband, who produced the film, was responsible for the casting and the cut, among other things. The family of the actresses was just as committed.

The film is quite pragmatic. You immediately notice what is going on. Katinka (Karolin Nothacker) does not think of marrying a man to save the farm, and her friend Anna (Pauline Bullinger), who is pregnant, reflects on castration. How did you-also figuratively-have found the balancing act between “romance romance”, hard work and coming of Age?

We only shot real scenes in this beautiful landscape, and then we tried through the 4: 3 format that you are more in the characters. It was simply not my goal to tell that everything is wonderful and beautiful in the country. It is not like that. Rather, I was concerned with the history of young women. There are often only two sides in films about the country: cruelty and beauty. I didn’t want this one patriarch to exist and that you have this strong, annoying male figure that prescribes everything and puts a lot of pressure. And everyone is wonderfully religious.

So they deleted almost all men …

… and played with the gender rolls! At a film festival for young people, a boy understood the same when he was asked about the men’s roles. He noticed that there were not so many men, and someone was a bit stupid of it, the second killed himself, and the third was naked. If it had been the other way around, nobody would have asked for the women.

What does that say about our society that we talk about the fact that women are in the foreground?

That is the point that it is always such a surprise to see these normal women in the film! I didn’t want them to sexualize them, even though they wear swimsuits almost all the time. Often the question of the documentary comes when there is no make-up and if you look so natural and feel so natural in your body. I have the feeling that the development would go back after five years full of hope through the entire shift to the right. There is still the narrative written by men, which then imposes women to be weaker than men. This is a fairy tale. The “weak woman” does not exist.

They worked with amateur actresses who are themselves farmers. How did you proceed? Even her grandma has taken on a role …

We rehearsed a bit before the shoot so that you and the other representatives get to know each other, but then we took every take with us. They didn’t have a script because I didn’t want them to train the text in High German, but that they use their own undisguised Hohenlohisch. I always said Pauline, Karolin and her sisters before the scene what happens, what the mood is and what they say. We turned a little bit in the farm in the farm, at home, at my aunt in the milking stand and with my grandma in the greenhouse, which has never played. That went really well with Karolin and my grandma. Somehow the language connected all.

Why did you choose dialect?

We all speak Hohenlohisch because we come out of the area. Only Johanna speaks her mother dialect Alemannic. I didn’t want her to learn another dialect. At the same time, this also fits the story because the mothers always move away with another farmer through marriage, and then the children do not speak the language of the mother. But many don’t notice that.

Johanna WOALEK took on the role of the mother. How well did she get in the shoot?

Johanna is a great actress. Of course she was totally professional. My father taught her tractor driving beforehand, and she also had to learn the milking. Under no circumstances did she want to stand out and simply did it while milking. Perhaps this is such a classic country thing that not so much is spoken to each other and you focus more on work. You can’t imagine how fast it works, up to 150 cows. And then you need a take and another take – and then it’s over because there is no cow that you can milk.

The film also addresses the Höfesterben. Green crosses are set up as a sign for this. “Milk into the fire” as the title is another strong picture!

This is a fiction, but there have been farmers who lit hay bales and then deleted with milk. There is actually only shit and milk on liquid. I think nobody would delete the fire with crap. It is also such a obvious protest that you use this food that is not worth as much. In Spain or Turkey, they pour tomatoes onto the street, and here it is the milk that burns.

“Milk into the fire”, Germany 2024. Director and screenplay: Justine Bauer. With: Johanna WOALEK, PAULINE BULLINGER, Anne Nothhacker, Sara Nothacker, Lore Bauer. 79 min.