Title: Nelly Rapp – Monster Agent von Amanda Adolfsson
Nelly (Matilda Gross) fights with loud noises and gloomy music through a backdrop of cardboard boxes against a large black shadow monster, which is projected on the walls by her flashlight. She is on a stage at her school and has just arrived at the finale, in which a lot of ketchup is also used as a blood substitute. Some of the students stare distraught at the stage, a little baby starts crying and at the end some ketchup splashes onto the audience. When Nelly is finished with her play, there is silence in the hall and she gets some head-shaking gestures. Her father is also in the audience and is discreetly embarrassed by Nelly’s performance. When Nelly is booed by some children, she quickly leaves the stage and barricades herself in the toilet, from which her father can only get her out with a lot of patience.
Nelly has a pronounced fable for the world of monsters. Where others are terrified, her curiosity really blossoms. Finally, it’s autumn vacations and her father takes Nelly and her dog “London” to her uncle Hannibal (Johan Rheborg), who owns a large old mansion. However, the two are first welcomed by the somewhat weird-looking servant Lena-Sleva (Marianne Mörck). The first night Nelly hears some strange noises from the street and when she looks out of the window she sees her uncle Hannibal as well as Lena-Sleva, as they bring someone loudly hissing and a bag on the head from a car towards the villa. Gripped by curiosity, she stealthily sneaks towards the entrance area and sees them taking their prisoner towards the cellar. The cellar, however, had been declared taboo by Lena-Sleva. Here Nelly should definitely not go. Of course Nelly now wants to inspect the cellar and so it happens that she sees a big cage with a real vampire, only Hannibal and Lena-Sleva are missing. Of course Nelly has to show this to her father immediately and so she drags him to the cellar in the middle of the night. When the two arrive there, however, there is no trace of the vampire and her father once again dismisses this as a fantasy world of his daughter.
Als sich dann Nellys Vater verabschiedet hat, begibt sich Nelly erneut auf die Suche im Keller und entdeckt schließlich einen geheimen Zugang zu einem großen Bereich im Keller der der Villa, ausgestattet mit jeder Menge Skurrilitäten und Abbildungen sowie Bücher von und über Monstern. Ihr Begeisterung wächst ins unermessliche und wird durch das plötzliche Auftauchen von Lena-Sleva unterbrochen. Da Lena-Sleva jedoch eine kleine Plaudertasche ist, weiht sie Nelly in die Geheimnisse der international agierenden Monsteragenten ein. Sie sind dafür zuständig, Monster wieder auf den rechten Weg zu bringen, damit Menschen und Monster sorglos zusammenleben können. Auch erfährt Nelly mehr über den Verbleib ihrer Mutter, die sie bis jetzt für verstorben gehalten hatte. Doch in Wirklichkeit ist sie bei der Suche nach einem Werwolf einfach spurlos verschwunden und keiner weiß, was aus ihr geworden ist. Das sie nun unter Monsteragenten ist, erfüllt natürlich Nellys größten Träume und kurzerhand wird auch sie in den “Club” aufgenommen.
Gemeinsam mit ihrem Hund macht sie am Folgetag einen Spaziergang durch den Wald, wo sie durch ihren Hund London auf ein leer stehend wirkendes Haus stolpert. Als sie das haus weiter inspiziert, wird sie jedoch von lauten stampfenden Schritten unterbrochen. Notgedrungen versteckt sie sich hinter einem Sofa, wird jedoch prompt entdeckt und blickt in das Gesicht eines Mädchens mit einigen Narben im Gesicht. Das ist für Nelly dann doch etwas zu viel und sie ergreift lieber schnell die Flucht. Doch das erlebte lässt ihr keine Ruhe und so durchstöbert sie einige Bücher um in Erfahrung zu bringen, was sie da gesehen hat.
Nelly gathers her courage and sets out again, but her search is thwarted by a werewolf. While escaping, Nelly stumbles and hits her head, rendering her unconscious. She is then saved at the last second by the girl, who was able to chase the werewolf away with a torch. When Nelly regains consciousness, she finds herself in the care of the girl and learns that she is dealing with a Frankenstein. Her name is Roberta and she eventually tells Nelly about her past and that she has been living all alone for several decades, since her mother passed away at some point, which of course provides a certain parallel in life for both of them. A friendship grows between the two, though Nelly struggles to inform her new friend that she is actually a monster agent. Nelly finally returns to her uncle’s mansion after her adventure, where all the other monster agents from around the world are arriving to discuss how to continue the monster hunt, as there are more and more of them, so they can hardly keep up. One of the younger monster agents has of course a groundbreaking concept ready. He wants to rehabilitate all monsters in a large center and transform them so that they can always be among humans. Zombies, for example, are to be fed only broccoli and given a proper lift, werewolves have their hair removed and get a fancy manicure, and so on. The proposal meets with a lot of applause and they want to start working on it right away. The only one who is not quite happy with these plans is Nelly, because she of all people now has a monster as a friend and she has to save her from the monster agents.
Conclusion:
Nelly Rapp has a clear message. No matter how you are, just be yourself, make something of it and don’t judge anyone for the way they are. It’s a great achievement that such a serious topic can be packaged in such a light and child-friendly way. Whereas child-friendly should be considered, because in the film you get to do it with some monsters that have it optically in themselves, so look very realistic. A hunting werewolf in the dark, a childish ghost with a knife in his belly, a shrunken head, the Frankenstein woman with the clear scars on her face and many other such figures is not for every child’s mind, even if everything is always wrapped up quite loosely and humorously. Also the director said before the film quite clearly that it is all just costumes and behind it are very dear people. But if the children have reached an age where monsters are really declared as fiction, you get here a great and fun family film.
Actors:
Matilda Gross (Nelly Rapp)
Lily Wahlsteen (Roberta)
Marianne Mörck (Lena-Sleva)
Johan Rheborg (Hannibal)
Björn Gustafsson (Vincent)
Jens Ohlin (Lennart)
Director:
Amanda Adolfsson
Infos zum Film:
https://www.berlinale.de/de/programm/programm/detail.html?film_id=202104323
Trailer:
