A murderous business
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | A murderous business |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 2011 |
| length | 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Martin Eigler |
| script | Martin Eigler, Sönke Lars Neuwöhner |
| production | Lucia Staubach |
| music | Johannes Kobilke |
| camera | Christoph Chassée |
| cut | Simone Sugg-Hofmann |
| occupation | |
| |
A murderous business is a German television film from 2011 by Martin Eigler with Christiane Paul and Devid Striesow in the leading roles. Supporting actors include Friedrich von Thun , Jürgen Heinrich and Felix Vörtler . The thriller was first broadcast on September 12, 2011 on ZDF .
action
The economic consultants Alina Liebermann and Tom Winkler are to renovate the ailing Oberhausen mechanical engineering company Salerno . Although the state of North Rhine-Westphalia has given a guarantee of 80 million euros, a plant in Slovakia has been sold and business is flourishing in China, the company is making heavy losses and is on the verge of bankruptcy . Tom was beaten up on the first day because he spoke openly to the workforce about a possible closure of the plant. He is certain that the company will not be able to be saved. However, Alina sees it differently. She says there is hope for salvation. The more the business consultants dig into the details of the company, the more inconsistencies come to light. Strangely enough, half a year ago, shortly after an internal restructuring, a managerial employee was killed in a car accident. But before Tom Winkler can clarify any connections, he is hit by a car himself. But he is certain that someone is fighting with all means to "cover up a mess". Despite his not inconsiderable injuries, Winkler leaves the hospital to meet with an informant. When his colleague Liebermann is looking for him, she finds him dead in his hotel room. Since a homicide cannot be ruled out, Liebermann is determined to continue pursuing Winkler's approaches. It is very likely that the 80 million from the national guarantee were illegally diverted to the plant in Slovakia, in order to "make it disappear" from there. Since Winkler got too close to this truth, he might have to die, like Marketing Director Matthei before.
But Winkler's death turns out to be a result of the accident. Nevertheless, Liebermann's boss, Werner Altkirch, pulls his employees away from Salerno so as not to endanger them too. Nevertheless, the company's founder, Siebert, feels so cornered that he suddenly comes up with documents that are supposed to prove that the head of production, along with a few others, had done crooked business. However, Liebermann has specific indications that Siebert is solely responsible for the diverted funds. Based on a recorded phone call that the Marketing Manager Stefanie Renner had saved on her PC for security reasons, Siebert can be clearly identified as the instigator of the staged accident six months ago. Both Siebert and Renner are then arrested. The driver of the car that Winkler had hit can be identified as an employee of the works security who had acted on behalf of Renner.
In the end, Liebermann realizes that she too was manipulated by her boss. Werner Altkirch still had an old account with Siebert, which is why he was very interested in seeing him on the ground. Accordingly, he put his best people on him, knowing full well that this could be life-threatening. In addition, he had played both off against each other.
background
It was filmed under the working title On Discharge Murder from September 14 to October 23, 2010 in Berlin and the Ruhr area.
reception
Audience rating
When it was first broadcast on ZDF on September 12, 2011 , A murderous business was seen by 5.02 million viewers, which corresponded to a market share of 15.9 percent.
Reviews
The lexicon of international films rated the film as: "A convincing (television) thriller and business crime about company manipulation and seduction, which, despite the wide range of conflicts and protagonists, always maintains an overview and never gets tangled in the web of well-developed plot."
Rainer Tittelbach from tittelbach.tv said: “'A murderous business' is a business crime, thriller, romance film. Martin Eigler sets out in search of a universal answer to the question: 'What causes people to displace their moral standards, manipulate numbers, hide money and walk over corpses?' "
Prisma judged: “In this bitter thriller, director and co-author Martin Eigler mercilessly accuses the criminal machinations of business bosses and the treatment of people as company inventory. At the same time, he reveals how company bosses, far from the usual renovation projects, can still enrich themselves. Fortunately, the film doesn't offer a happy ending. "
TV Spielfilm wrote: “The business thriller by Martin Eigler ('Solo for Black') captivates with a complex story and a paranoid atmosphere, until he runs out of breath in the last act. Striesow's fine-nerved portrayal of a sensitive cynic and the ice-cold pictures of cameraman Christoph Chassée make it definitely worth seeing. Conclusion: Despite a mild end: a smart, cool corporate crime thriller. "
Heike Upertz from the FAZ assessed: “'A murderous business' is fiction, it has to be emphasized, is a business crime that combines the thriller genre and a prevented love story effortlessly, excitingly and highly illuminating. The presentation of the mechanisms by which large companies function and the amoral power structures that almost inevitably develop in the capitalist market game is seldom as realistic and at the same time entertaining as in this Teamworx production. [...] Brilliantly cast and played in a gripping manner beyond the cliché, the film shows what the will to power, the actual driving force behind most of its characters, does in the area of the individually moral and socially desirable. Staged in the manner of a classic thriller by Martin Eigler and photographed in a cool, atmospheric way by Christoph Chassée, the book by Sönke Lars Neuwöhner and Martin Eigler is convincing in every detail. "
Focus online author Carin Pawlak, on the other hand, said: “A real thriller is not 'a murderous business', neither is a crime novel. A fine moral picture anyway. The theses that a film with Devid Striesow can not be bad and Saab drivers can only be good, come true. Because of course Striesow is still good as a corpse and the figure Alina Liebermann is ultimately a decent woman. We still want moral makers. As standard, please. And not just on television. ” Focus
Web links
- A murderous business in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- A murderous business at Fernsehserien.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ A murderous business at crew-united.com, accessed on February 24, 2020.
- ↑ “A murderous business” reached second place in prime time yesterday evening! at web.archive.org, accessed February 24, 2020.
- ↑ A murderous business. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Striesow, Eigler, Christiane Paul & the "Logic of Profit-Oriented Business" at tittelbach.tv , accessed on December 6, 2012.
- ^ A murderous business at prisma.de, accessed on December 6, 2012.
- ^ A murderous deal at TV Spielfilm , accessed December 6, 2012.
- ↑ Heike Upertz: The amoral structures of power at faz.net, accessed on December 6, 2012.
- ↑ TV column Moral costs extra at focus.de , accessed on December 6, 2012.