2020

The cinema release of "Platzspitzbaby" on 16 January 2020 attracted attention far beyond the film scene. The University of Teacher Education Lucerne also contributed to this by providing teaching materials that enable teachers and students at secondary levels I and II to engage appropriately with the film's subject matter. 

The open drug scene in the city of Zurich, its end and consequences are described from a personally affected perspective in the book «Platzspitzbaby, Meine Mutter, ihre Drogen und ich» (Platzspitzbaby, My Mother, her drugs and I) by Michelle Halbheer and Franziska K. Müller. Director Pierre Monnard was inspired by the moving fate of the girl who grew up with her drug-addicted mother and made an equally touching film. 

Film sequences are also at the centre of the extensive school materials that the University of Teacher Education Lucerne has compiled and made available, thanks to Vera Humbel, a student in the master's degree in history education and public history. Contemporary witnesses such as the mayor of the city at the time, medical professionals involved, drug addicts and children of addicts talk about their experiences on the public square Platzspitz in nine video clips.

«These contemporary witnesses act as a bridge. They show what happened in the past and compare the current situation with that of the 1980s and 1990s. This opens people's eyes, arouses curiosity and enables education,» explains Vera Humbel, who is not just thinking of raising individual awareness of how to deal with addictive substances.

According to Humbel, the aim of the teaching unit is to give pupils an insight into the transformation and changeability of our society. «With the help of the teaching session, they acquire social education: they become curious about life contexts in other times and of other people, they deal with their identity and that of others, with social identity, they reflect on the scope for action in the past, present and future.»

Bild: C-FILMS, PH Luzern