Cut off (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Cut off |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2018 |
| length | 132 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Christian Alvart |
| script | Christian Alvart |
| production | Christian Alvart, Siegfried Kamml , Hartmut Köhler , Barbara Thielen , Regina Ziegler |
| music |
Maurus Ronner , Christoph Schauer |
| camera | Jakub Bejnarowicz |
| cut | Marc Hofmeister |
| occupation | |
| |
A German thriller by Christian Alvart from 2018 is cut off . The film is based on the novel of the same name that Sebastian Fitzek wrote with forensic doctor Michael Tsokos . In addition to Moritz Bleibtreu and Jasna Fritzi Bauer , Lars Eidinger and Fahri Yardim play the leading roles .
action
A violent storm is raging around Heligoland , so that the island is cut off from the outside world. The 24-year-old comic artist Linda is temporarily on the island. She is threatened by her ex-boyfriend Danny, who stalks her . When she once again thought she had to flee from him and fell down an embankment, she came across a corpse on the beach.
At the same time for that is Bundeskriminalamt active forensic pathologist Dr. Paul Herzfeld is busy doing an autopsy at the Charité in Berlin . He finds a capsule in the head of a female corpse, whose jaw is missing. Inside is a small piece of paper on which the cell phone number of his 17-year-old daughter Hannah, whom he rarely sees after separating from Hannah's mother, is noted. He dials the number and has to take note that his daughter has been kidnapped and that he should wait for more information from a man named Erik. Herzfeld is strictly instructed not to inform the police if he does not want to endanger the life of his daughter.
A little later the dead man's cell phone rings on Heligoland when Linda is standing next to the corpse. She accepts the call and speaks to Herzfeld. She explains to him that he cannot come to Heligoland because of the storm. He then instructs her to look for Ender Müller, the caretaker friend of the Inselklinik, and to bring the body to the autopsy room with his help. At the same time, he and his new intern Ingolf von Appen, a young man who has become rich through the sale of an internet platform he developed as a 14-year-old, but as an intern in forensic medicine, rather incapable of doing so, set off for Cuxhaven in von Appens Auto . During the drive, he calls Linda to examine the body from the beach.
Linda, the vegetarian and disgusted, only an outer right necropsy , which it performs after heart field instructions while Ender tried with jokes to loosen the mood. However, when she sees a yellow object in the dead man's neck and is supposed to cut open his neck, she defends herself against this request. Only after talking to Herzfeld about her ex-boyfriend Danny does she change her mind. The object turns out to be an insert from a surprise egg . There's a photo inside. It shows the retired former judge Friederike Töven, who lived on Heligoland and who, in Jens Marinek's opinion, had passed a judgment against Sadler that was far too mild. Marinek's only minor daughter had been violated and driven to suicide by Sadler. Herzfeld and Marinek were colleagues and friends at the time. Marinek had urged Herzfeld at the time to obtain a higher sentence for Sadler by making a false statement, which Herzfeld had refused.
Linda and Ender break into Töven's house on Heligoland and find the woman's body there, which they also bring to the autopsy room. Meanwhile, Herzfeld and his intern have reached the remote house of his colleague Jens Marinek. There, next to a dead pig, they find references to the sadist Jan Erik Sadler, the man who holds Hannah prisoner. While searching for clues, Ingolf breaks into a frozen lake next to the house, but Herzfeld rescues him.
In the clinic on Heligoland, Ender wants to secure the power supply and comes back with a knife in his shoulder to the autopsy room in which Linda has locked herself. There is a stick of wood in Töven's anus. Herzfeld saw corresponding pictures in a video. There are numbers on the stick that Linda sends over the phone. It is geographic coordinates that lead Herzfeld and the intern into a forest. There he is overwhelmed by Marinek. He swallows a memory chip before shooting himself. Herzfeld takes out the chip and sees the moving company Philipp Schwintowski in a video.
Not only Marinek's daughter Lily, but also Schwintowski's daughter Rebecca were kidnapped by Sadler. Both took their own lives in desperation after being desecrated by Sadler. The two men then decided to take vigilante justice . They prompted Hannah's kidnapping because, in their eyes, Herzfeld, as part of the legal system, is jointly responsible for the death of their daughters.
Herzfeld intentionally causes a car accident in the forest to alert a rescue helicopter via the car's automatic emergency call system , which he uses to fly to Heligoland with Ingolf. There Herzfeld saves Linda and Ender after they were attacked by Sadler and Ender was seriously injured in the process. He recognizes Schwintowski in the dead man on the beach. An allusion to Alcatraz leads the group to a bunker system under the lighthouse of Helgoland, which the Nazis once built. Herzfeld finds Hannah there and frees her. Sadler can hide and escapes undetected.
The forensic doctor thanks Linda and Ingolf for their help before he flies back in the helicopter with Hannah and the bodies. When the helicopter is in the middle of the North Sea , a knife sticks through a body bag . Sadler attacks the group before Herzfeld pushes him out of the helicopter and, after a brief hesitation, cuts his fingers, which are clinging to the helicopter's drive, with a knife.
production
Production notes
Cut off the third film adaptation of a novel Fitzek after the child and the Joshua profile . Many of the scenes in the film were shot at the original location on Heligoland . Employees of the Paracelsus North Sea Clinic appeared as extras. Other scenes were created in Berlin, including in an abandoned factory building in the Schöneweide district and in the auditorium of the Benjamin Franklin University Hospital.
Michael Tsokos was there as a consultant and some of his real colleagues were involved in the film. There was a press conference to present the film at Tsokos' workplace in the Charité . The forensic doctor described the portrayal of the autopsy in the film as realistic. He believes that even a layperson can perform an autopsy under the guidance of an expert: “Any other non-expert could do that under my guidance.” The director Christian Alvart described the film as a “section thriller”. For him it was important to slowly introduce the viewer to the pictures of the autopsies: “It was of course extremely difficult to find a visual medium, what do you do, how much do you show, what is not only reasonable, but how do you get used to it Spectators, how do you introduce the world. "
Tsokos and Fitzek have cameo appearances as a professor at a lecture and as an attorney for the forensic doctor. Tsoko's daughter Linnea plays five-year-old Rebecca. Christopher Kohn is the voice of Danny, Daniela Wüstner that of Petra Herzfeld.
publication
The film was released in Germany on October 11, 2018, in Russia on March 14, 2019. It was screened at the Cinequest Film Festival on March 16, 2019 and at the Cleveland International Film Festival in the USA on April 5, 2019. It was presented in Belgium on April 20, 2019 at the BIFF, in the UK on August 23, 2019 at the FrightFest and in France on September 7, 2019 at the L'Étrange Festival. The international title of the film is Cut Off .
reception
criticism
Christoph Petersen describes the film at Filmstarts .de as “large-scale and fast-paced genre cinema of the darker kind. [Alvart] actually succeeded in making a film adaptation that absolutely corresponds to the spirit of the original - with all the advantages and disadvantages that the often tried and tested Fitzek scam brings with it. ”He praises the main actors Bleibtreu and Bauer, but says that the film adaptation mainly Fitzek fans like it.
Kaspar Heinrich is at Zeit Online : “The overloaded story is the pretext for a violence and autopsy orgy lasting more than two hours. [...] You really have to be tough to endure being cut off . "Heinrich speaks of an" outrageous story "and sees the film in connection with the" generally bad reputation of German thrillers ".
Antje Wessels describes the story at Oddsmeter.de as outrageous, but exciting and goes into the structure: “The audience is always a few steps ahead of the main character [...]. This special narrative form, which over time also mixes a kind of 'paper chase structure' [...], is supplemented by the idea of quickly relegating the main character to a secondary character. "
Philipp Schwarz from Spiegel Online sees the film as a “strangely bloodless thriller. [... In the] contradiction between the novel-like principle of escalating theory formation and the cinematic principle of sensual intensity, Alvart's film is increasingly worn out. "
The critic Rüdiger Suchsland rated the film for arteschock and said that “craftsmanship” was also right “a lot in this film”. The story, however, is "extremely complicated and unnecessary". Suchsland further wrote: “Everything, really everything, is consumed here, whatever the original: A typical postmodern story that is never about the representation of reality. At the same time, the film combines very realistic scenes, such as the blunt demonstration of a particularly brutal rape, with moments that are supposed to sound lousy . ” Cut off its“ special charm ”and is“ a thriller that works with disgusting horror ”. There is “not much of this kind of film in German cinema”. Moritz Bleibtreu, Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Lars Eidinger and Fahri Yardim were praised for having won “outstanding actors”.
Oliver Kube wrote in the picture that horror from Germany "likes to go wrong". A "tough thriller" is cut off . Director Alvart creates an "extremely dark, intense atmosphere that is otherwise only to be experienced in Hollywood films like 'Sieben'". In addition to the “star ensemble”, it is “above all the autumn foggy mood” that characterizes the thriller. Conclusion: "A complex story full of crazy twists and turns plus an atmosphere like in the big budget thriller from Hollywood: This top-rated bestseller film adaptation leaves the viewer breathless and trembling with tension."
Awards (selection)
- The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating "valuable".
- Jasna Fritzi Bauer was nominated for the Jupiter Award in the “Best German Actress” category
Web links
- Cut in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Truncated in the online movie database
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for cut off . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF).
- ↑ That is how hard the Fitzek film "Abgeschnitte" really is. Golden Camera, September 5, 2018, accessed October 12, 2018 .
- ↑ Horror on Helgoland: The film "Abgeschnitte". NDR , October 9, 2018, accessed October 12, 2018 .
- ↑ "The corpses smelled of plastic". n-tv , October 11, 2018, accessed October 12, 2018 .
- ↑ Truncated - FanAction. Sebastian Fitzek, March 4, 2017, accessed on October 13, 2018 .
- ↑ Prof. Dr. Michael Tsokos on his and Sebastian Fitzek's thriller "Cut off", which is coming to the cinema. Buchszene, October 9, 2018, accessed on October 13, 2018 .
- ↑ Fitzek and Tsokos explain their film shocker in the morgue. t-online.de , October 9, 2018, accessed on October 13, 2018 .
- ↑ a b The autopsy scenes are so authentic. Stern , October 10, 2018, accessed October 12, 2018 .
- ↑ Under corpses. Deutschlandfunk , October 6, 2018, accessed on October 16, 2018 .
- ^ Criticism from the FILMSTARTS editorial team. Filmstarts.de, accessed on October 12, 2018 .
- ↑ Is the creep coming back? Zeit Online , October 11, 2018, accessed October 12, 2018 .
- ↑ «Abgeschnitte» - German genre cinema thought big. Quotemeter.de , October 11, 2018, accessed on October 12, 2018 .
- ↑ We're slaughtering a bestseller. Spiegel Online , October 11, 2018, accessed October 12, 2018 .
- ^ Rüdiger Suchsland : Cut off. Dead postmen don't ring, see page arteschock.de. Retrieved October 20, 2019.
- ↑ Oliver Kube: Film review: "Cut off" Hard thriller based on Sebastian Fitzek's novel In: Bild, October 10, 2018 (including trailer). Retrieved October 20, 2019.