A true hit on the Netflix platform, the German series Dear Little follows a police investigation centered on the escape of a woman and her daughter, who were kidnapped by a man in a converted basement. Adapted from the bestseller of the same name written by Romi Hausmann, this fiction directly deals with the case of Natasha Kampusch.
Faced with the violence of such a plot, the team had to use their imagination to protect and train the young actors, Nyla Schubert (Hannah) and Sammy Shrein (Jonathan). Screenwriters and directors Isabelle Klefeld and Julian Porksen came up with the idea of creating a script for children to best convey the main elements of the story to them.
Isabelle Klefeld especially reworked the scripts of all the episodes to translate them into new terms. Adult actors also had access to this version when sharing scenes with children. In Interview with Netflix WeekThe screenwriter gives an example: in this watery scenario, the abductor is not a psychopath, but a father.
“This is a person who is afraid that someone will get hurt. That’s why he doesn’t let anyone out, and that’s why the chairs in the house are safe, he doesn’t hurt anyone and he doesn’t hit his head. They have to show their hand to check that they are not hiding anything dangerous“, he explains.
This method is not really common in cinema, but for Dear Little it proved to be the most effective considering the impressive performances of the two young actors.
Dear Little is available on Netflix.
Source: Allocine
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
