Half a life

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Movie
Original title Half a life
Country of production Austria , Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2009
length 95 minutes
Rod
Director Nikolaus Leytner
script Nikolaus Leytner
production Allegro Film , Helmut Grasser
music Matthias Weber
camera Hermann Dunzendorfer
cut Andreas Kopriva
occupation

Half a life is a German-Austrian TV drama. The film was shot in 2008 under the direction of Nikolaus Leytner and co-financed by the Vienna Film Fund and the TV companies ORF and ZDF . It was first broadcast in April 2009 on the screen.

action

The plot accompanies two main characters: on the one hand, the Viennese subway driver Ulrich Lenz (Josef Hader). He has already served a prison sentence for rape. As early as the mid-1980s, Lenz had killed a 20-year-old in an attempted rape. In the further course of the film it is implied that Lenz should not have killed the woman intentionally, but rather emotionally. Lenz suffers from his guilt, he regrets the act. When he confides in his partner (who only knew about the atoned rape), the two are just getting ready for the wedding; But that's too much for her now, she is leaving him. Years later, Lenz has a new relationship that results in a daughter. After this partner left him, he lived as a single father with his little daughter. He finds it difficult to lead a normal life. He is torn between the urge to finally be able to confess and to experience his punishment and the fear of forfeiting his freedom and thus abandoning his daughter.

The second main character in the film is the father (Matthias Habich) of the dead. Years after the crime, he still has to struggle with the gruesome death of his daughter and finds no peace until the perpetrator is caught. So he cannot lead a normal life either. He is constantly in contact with his friend, the Viennese police officer Max Hauer, in order to keep up to date with the progress of the investigation. In the end, he puts all his hopes in the emerging new investigation method of DNA analysis , which is supposed to help find the murderer of his daughter using genetic fingerprints.

The perpetrator Ulrich Lenz also learns about the new method. When it was announced that all former sex offenders would have to submit a DNA sample in order to be saved in a perpetrator file, Ulrich Lenz suspected that it was only a matter of time before he was caught. He gives in the DNA sample, lives on with his daughter and expects to be arrested every day.

One morning Ulrich Lenz notices that he is being shadowed. He's taking his daughter to school when the police strike. And Lenz can just say goodbye to his daughter, he will always be there for her. When he is arrested, it is at the same time the collapse of his world and finally relief: After more than 20 years, he confesses to his deed in full and in all details.

Lenz asks his public defender to arrange a meeting with the father of his victim in prison. The two then meet in the key scene of the film. Lenz apologizes, but he leaves the question of his counterpart about why unanswered. Instead, he talks about his daughter and that he had promised her that he would always be there for her. The victim's father breaks off the conversation after a few sentences: He is shocked that he can no longer feel the same irrepressible anger towards the repentant perpetrator as he did all the years before with the then unknown.

The film ends with Lenz's conviction and with the victim parents visiting the perpetrator's daughter in the children's home and offering to do something with her from time to time. The girl is happy about it - especially because of the promised ice cream.

Reviews

  • Der Standard on April 9, 2009: "While Haders' acting is convincing, the film admittedly suffers from serious lack of credibility." (P. 28)
  • The press on the same day: “The script - it is not based on any concrete real case - stands out well from typical US or German mainstream TV productions: So there is no moral sermon either. On the contrary: the film gradually evades blame ” (p. 23)

Awards

Web links