Ed's Review Dot Com

Cine Plus, Lüthje & Schneider Filmproduktion, Das Kleine Fernsehspiel (ZDF),

Ulrich Thomsen, Wotan Wilke Möhring, Katrin Sass, Sebastian Blomberg, Burghart Klaussner, Karoline Eichhorn, Roeland Wiesnekker, Jule Böwe, Oliver Stokowski

Pia (Helene Doppler) was 11 years old when she was captured by a predator while riding her bike on a country road. He raped and killed her, then threw her body in a lake. 23 years later, a young girl named Sinikka (Anna-Lena Klenke) was killed in the same way in the same spot. The townsfolk have to face the same horrible crime again, and it seems everyone has a stake in it, the police, the families of the victims, and the perpetrators themselves. How can the same evil strike nearly a quarter century later?

This is a German language film, with English subtitles. It’s a very dark and suspenseful film, but very, very well done. The characters and the actors who play them are very good. The suspense is very high, and the crimes are not gory or lewd, but graphic enough to shock and stun the audience. Interestingly in today’s news they have announced that the category Pedophile is now going to be treated as another sexual preference just like Gay and Straight are today. It is ironic that I viewed this film about this taboo subject today. As you may have noticed, there are hundreds of reviews out there of the latest blockbuster film, and though I will write those as I see them, I tend to search for out of the mainstream smaller, and more likely overlooked films to view and review. This is certainly out of the mainstream. But with it’s recent release on DVD in the U.S. you may be hearing more about this little film. Horrible as the crimes are, this is a truthful, straight in the eye, unflinching look at the perpetrators, and the families of those affected. Likewise, it’s a view into the police force that is not happy about having to deal with this, but forced to look at it in detail. With differing personalities, each person wants to deal with this in a different way. If you have the stomach to look at this time of crime, this is very nicely done. It’s not rated, as it’s a foreign film, but it certainly wouldn’t be less than an R rating in the U.S. market. Except for the total frontal nudity of an older heavyset man going swimming, there is no real nudity in the film. But the shock value is in the behavior and attitudes of the people in the film. I was touched by this story, and was glad I was able to see this movie, disturbing as it is.

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