The Promise (2016)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The promise
Country of production Germany
original language English , German
Publishing year 2016
length 133 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Marcus Vetter ,
Karin Steinberger
production Louise Rosen ,
Ulf Meyer ,
Marcus Vetter
music Jens Huerkamp
camera Georg Zengerling
cut Marcus cousin

The Promise (international title: The Promise ) is a German documentary by Marcus Vetter and Karin Steinberger . The film focuses on the case of Derek and Nancy Haysom, who were brutally murdered on March 30, 1985 at their home in Boonsboro, Virginia . The focus is on the two convicts Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom . At the end of the controversial trial, Soering was sentenced to two life sentences for murder, and Haysom was sentenced to two 45-year prison terms for incitement to murder.

The film premiered on June 24, 2016 at the Munich Film Festival in the New German Cinema series. The film was released in German cinemas on October 27, 2016 and was released on DVD in May 2017.

content

Jens, son of a German diplomat , and Elizabeth, daughter of the murdered couple, met for the first time on August 25, 1984 at a meeting for gifted scholars from the University of Virginia . After a few months they become a couple. But their relationship soon becomes a " folie à deux ". Elizabeth Haysom tells him that she has been abused by her mother for years and was brutally raped in a boarding school in Switzerland . Jens Soering is entranced by their stories. For him it is great love. He would do anything for this girl. In her love letters it becomes clear how much Elizabeth Haysom wants her parents dead.

On March 30, 1985, Elizabeth's parents were found brutally murdered in their Lynchburg home. The small town of Lynchburg is in a panic, there is talk of voodoo and a serial killer. For the police there is no motive, no suspects, no leads.

When the investigators get closer and closer to the couple in their investigations, Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom flee America. The escape becomes an adventure: Asia, Europe. On April 30, 1986, they were arrested in England for check fraud. Elizabeth Haysom is extradited to the United States. Jens Soering is fighting against his extradition to the USA before the European Court of Human Rights . On July 7, 1989, the Court of Justice ruled that the death penalty constituted torture or inhuman or degrading treatment. Jens Soering was extradited to the USA only when the USA waived the application for the death penalty.

"I'm innocent," he says when he was sentenced to two life sentences for two murders in Virginia on September 4, 1990. Elizabeth Haysom has been in prison for two years, sentenced to 90 years for incitement to murder.

background

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

The filmmakers used extensive original footage from press archives and the two trials of the convicts, which were the first trials to be broadcast nationwide on American television. These recordings from 1985 to 1990 are combined in the film with newly filmed scenes, among others. a. Interviews with Jens Soering, contemporary witnesses and investigators, lawyers, prosecutors and journalists involved in the case. Extensive archive material was also used for the film, such as original crime scene photos and evidence, court transcripts, newspaper articles as well as love letters and diaries from Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom.

For more than three years, the filmmakers researched and found new evidence that was never mentioned or declared inadmissible in court. DNA tests have meanwhile shown that none of the traces found at the crime scene can be attributed to Jens Soering. His application for parole has now been rejected eleven times. His transfer to Germany was confirmed in 2010 by a Democratic governor on his last day in office, but stopped by his Republican successor on his first day at work. On November 25, 2019, Soering's release and transfer to Germany were announced. He was released from regular custody a day later and taken to detention center in the town of Farmville. At the same time, a re-entry ban into the USA was imposed. A full pardon for Soering has been refused. Soering arrived at Frankfurt Airport on December 17, 2019.

The film questions old and new evidence, such as the as yet unidentified fingerprints from the crime scene, a missing FBI profile and witnesses who have never been called to court. The film also addresses the sexual abuse of Elizabeth Haysom by her mother, which was classified as irrelevant by the judge and was not discussed in court, as well as the bias of the judge, who was friends with the family of the murdered Nancy Haysom and in an interview before the start of the trial already said who he believed to be guilty. The film also accompanies a private detective who goes in search of the truth, he questions suspects and witnesses who never had to testify in court.

people

  • Jens Soering, sentenced to two life sentences for the murder of Derek and Nancy Haysom
  • Chuck Reid, former Bedford County Sheriff's Department investigator
  • Ricky Gardner, Bedford County Sheriff's Department investigator on the Haysom case
  • Susanne Peniche and John Peniche, current residents of the Haysom family home
  • Rich Zorn, former Assistant Attorney General and friend of the Soering
  • Gail Marshall, former Virginia Assistant Attorney and Attorney for Jens Soering
  • Tom Elliott, Catholic deacon and prison chaplain
  • Dave Watson, private investigator
  • Gail Ball, Jens Soering's lawyer
  • Steve Rosenfield, former attorney for Elizabeth Haysom and current attorney for Jens Soering
  • Judge William Sweeney, judge who led the Haysom trials
  • Mada Sweeney, wife of the judge
  • Tony Buchanan, a witness who was never officially questioned
  • Ed Sulzbach, retired FBI profiler
  • Carlos Santos, the Richmond Times-Dispatch journalist who followed the case from the start

The couple's love letters are read out in several sequences by Imogen Poots (Elizabeth Haysom) and Daniel Brühl (Jens Söring).

production

The film was produced by Filmperspektiven GmbH based in Stuttgart. Co-production partners are Südwestrundfunk , Bayerischer Rundfunk , ARTE and Danmarks Radio in cooperation with the BBC , Sveriges Television and VPRO . The film was funded by MFG film funding and the German film funding fund .

Performances and prizes

The film premiered in the United States on November 5, 2016 at the Virginia Film Festival . In March 2017, the film was awarded the Öngören Prize for Democracy and Human Rights at the 22nd Turkey / Germany Film Festival in Nuremberg . In May 2017 he was also nominated for the German Documentary Film Award. The film aired in the UK in March 2017 as part of the BBC documentary series Storyville .

criticism

In a detailed analysis of the film published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine , the American lawyer Andrew Hammel accused the authors of omitting important facts that contradict their innocence thesis. The film is a work of "postural journalism", which suppresses all facts that contradict the original thesis, "so as not to counteract the ideologically determined pattern".

In Die Zeit it is stated that the impression of the one-sided reporting arises from the fact that Elizabeth Haysom was not prepared to present her version of the events despite the filmmakers' efforts to get an interview.

Der Spiegel does not find Soering's portrayal particularly friendly, but considers the new evidence of his innocence to be convincing and refers to the political circumstances in Virginia that stand in the way of his dismissal.

In the Frankfurter Allgemeine it says: “The film raises more than just the suspicion that the wrong person has been convicted. Marcus Vetter and Karin Steinberger (...) bring investigative and procedural errors to light. Fingerprints were found at the crime scene that have not yet been identified, no traces of Soering were found, only a sock print was assigned to him. The perpetrator profile created by an FBI profiler, suspecting a woman close to the victims as the perpetrator, disappeared in the archives, as did Elizabeth Haysom's nude photos, which were found by investigators in the Haysoms house. The judge was privately friends with the victims. Suspects and witnesses who could have exonerated Soering were never summoned. It is becoming increasingly clear that the stranger, who seemed almost arrogant during the negotiation, did not get a fair trial. This film resonates for a long time. "

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The promise. In: filmfest-muenchen.de. Munich Film Festival , accessed on August 21, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Release Info. Internet Movie Database , accessed August 21, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Release of Jens Soering in the USA: "The case was a plaything between Democrats and Republicans" on dlf.de, November 28, 2019.
  4. ↑ The Promise. Virginia Film Festival, accessed October 26, 2016 .
  5. ↑ - ( Memento from July 28, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ SWR / CORRECTION: German Documentary Award: Twelve productions nominated . Finanznachrichten.de, May 5, 2017, accessed on November 27, 2019.
  7. ↑ bbc.co.uk
  8. ↑ A paradoxical mixture of cynicism and naivety , faz.net , November 26, 2019.
  9. ↑ Kaspar Heinrich: Victim of a childhood love. In: The time . October 25, 2016, accessed May 11, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Marc Pitzke: "You can't just throw me away like that". In: Der Spiegel . October 26, 2016, accessed May 11, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Katharina Koser: From the consequences of a delusional love. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . August 15, 2018, accessed May 11, 2020 .