In the Shadow of Fear (2019)

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Movie
Original title In the shadow of fear
Country of production Austria , Germany
original language German
Publishing year 2019
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Till Endemann
script Marie-Therese Thill ,
Rebekka Reuber
production Thomas Hroch ,
Gerald Podgornig ,
Gudula von Eysmondt
music Oliver Thiede
camera Lars Liebold
cut Kilian von Keyserlingk
occupation

In the shadow of fear is an Austrian-German television film from 2019 by Till Endemann with Julia Koschitz and Justus von Dohnányi . The premiere of the psychodrama took place on August 30, 2019 at the Festival of German Films , where the lead actress Julia Koschitz was awarded the Drama Award on September 4, 2019 as part of another screening . The first broadcast on ORF was on September 15, 2019. The film was first shown on ZDF on March 16, 2020.

action

Carsten Spanger is a well-known architect who kidnapped a young woman. The forensic psychiatrist Karla Eckhardt, as an expert witness in criminal proceedings, is supposed to assess whether the accused is fully responsible for his actions or whether he is at fault . She should therefore decide whether he will either go to prison or to a closed institution . She is supported by her intern Niklas Teubert, while Sandra Hinzey and Axel Stauf are investigating the police.

Eckhardt comes to the conclusion that Spanger has a personality disorder. She also suspects that he is a repeat offender. Hinzey finds three murder victims in the files who match the profile he was looking for. The first victim died after Spanger's mother died. After Eckhardt suspects that Antonia Weiland could still be a victim living in hiding, she tries to win Spanger's trust in order to save their life. Spanger's case represents the skills of Dr. Eckhardt to a severe and personal test. Eckhardt confesses to Spanger, for example, that her mother, the innkeeper Ursula, known as "Uschi", locked her up in a dark pantry as a child and has been afraid of the dark ever since. Her mother refuses to discuss it.

The wanted victim Antonia Weiland is finally found dead, according to the state of decomposition of the corpse, it had been in the water for at least two weeks at this time. Traces were also found on the tape that were found on the tape of Spanger's last victim. In the photo of the first victim, Eckhardt discovers the same ring that Spanger is wearing. She now suspects, also based on previous statements by Spanger, that a child could come from this relationship. Spanger promises to bring her personally to his daughter Elisa, Eckhardt manages to smuggle Spanger out of the institution. Teubert and Hinzey start tracking them based on the cell phone's GPS data, but temporarily lose track of them.

Spanger takes her to a hut on the Danube, where Eckhardt finds Elisa alive in a room under a trap door. Eckhardt wants to take Elisa to a hospital, but Spanger refuses. He wants the three of them to stay together as a family forever. Spanger is eventually overpowered and arrested by Hinzey. In front of the court, Eckhardt gives the assessment that Spanger is not guilty, so he is committed to an institution for mentally abnormal lawbreakers.

production

The shooting took place from November 13 to December 14, 2018 in Vienna and Munich .

The film was produced by the Austrian Mona Film and the German Tivoli Film by the Austrian producers Thomas Hroch and Gerald Podgornig , the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation and the ZDF were involved , the production was supported by the Filmfonds Wien , the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern and the TV Fund Austria.

Lutz Pape was responsible for the sound, Andreas C. Schmid for the production design, Lars R. Liebold for the visual design, Elisabeth Fritsche for the costumes and Nadine Scherer and Christine Bernrieder for the masks.

reception

Thomas Gehringer from tittelbach.tv wrote that Koschitz and Dohnányi fought a gripping duel in the psychological thriller. Thanks to the extraordinary picture design, many scenes are downright physically intense. The thriller is an entertaining genre pleasure that can be forgiven for the fact that some secondary characters remained stereotypical and that the plot sometimes lacks the ultimate precision and persuasiveness. Some of the role models are unusual, but the basic psychological motif of a lack of motherly love is a moderately original classic.

Wilfried Geldner described the film in the Mittelbayerische Zeitung as standing on somewhat clayey feet, but thanks to the duo Koschitz and von Dohnányi, quite exciting chamber play. This finally turns into a hectic thriller that hardly holds any surprises in store. The intensely staged psychological material ultimately fluctuates between meticulous psychological exploration and serial killing.

Sylvia Staude found in the Frankfurter Rundschau that the rapprochement between psychologist and psychopath about difficult childhoods was not madly original and came straight from the top kitchen psychology drawer. The actors would have to tear it out, which they would do with small restrictions. Some details, some characters also give the story a twist or two away from pure cliché.

Oliver Junge gave a similar judgment in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , who wrote about the film "dreary kitchen psychological speech bubble ping-pong full of implicit gender clichés". What sets the film apart is its acting class. This thriller differs from the usual psychopath crime novels mainly in the addition of an unbelievable family disposition. That should give the plot depth, but the symbolic and the psychological kitsch are always more important than coherence and subtlety. It is particularly irritating that the final turned out to be too harmonious in the last few meters.

Tilmann P. Gangloff ( RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland ), on the other hand, said that the crime thriller was cleverly designed and kept surprising. The finale is a small hit. The film would captivate the viewer for over ninety minutes. Last but not least, the quality of the staging is evident in the extensive absence of typical thriller elements. The tension results primarily from the chamber play-like togetherness and opposition of the two “main characters embodied as formidably as multifaceted”.

In Germany, 5.10 million people saw the film when it was first broadcast; the market share was 14.7 percent.

Awards and nominations

Festival of German Film 2019

  • Awarded the media culture award

Romy Awards 2020

  • Nomination in the category of best TV film

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Festival of German Films: In the Shadow of Fear. Retrieved July 16, 2019 .
  2. ^ Festival of German Film: The Drama Award for Julia Koschitz. July 11, 2019, accessed July 16, 2019 .
  3. ORF 2: In the shadow of fear. In: ORF.at . Accessed August 31, 2019 .
  4. In the shadow of fear. In: Fernsehserien.de . Retrieved February 11, 2020 .
  5. a b Mona Film: In the shadow of fear. Retrieved July 16, 2019 .
  6. a b In the shadow of fear at crew united . Retrieved July 16, 2019.
  7. ^ Start of shooting for "Im Schatten der Angst" (AT) with Julia Koschitz. Retrieved July 16, 2019 .
  8. ^ Vienna Film Fund: In the shadow of fear. Retrieved July 16, 2019 .
  9. Thomas Gehringer: TV film "In the shadow of fear". In: tittelbach.tv . Retrieved February 25, 2020 .
  10. Wilfried Geldner: The Silence of the Viennese. In: Mittelbayerische.de. March 11, 2020, accessed March 12, 2020 .
  11. Sylvia Staude: "In the shadow of fear" on ZDF; She knows anyway what no one else can see. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . March 15, 2020, accessed March 15, 2020 .
  12. Oliver Junge: "In the Shadow of Fear" on ZDF: Mom is to blame. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . March 16, 2020, accessed March 16, 2020 .
  13. Tilmann P. Gangloff : “In the shadow of fear”: Cat and mouse game between psychiatrist and perpetrator. In: RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland . March 15, 2020, accessed March 16, 2020 .
  14. Niklas Spitz: Primetime Check: Saturday, March 14, 2020. In : quotemeter.de . March 17, 2020, accessed March 18, 2020 .
  15. ^ The winners 2019 - Festival of German Films Ludwigshafen am Rhein. Retrieved September 7, 2019 .
  16. ROMY Academy Awards: The playing field for experts. In: Kurier.at . March 11, 2020, accessed March 11, 2020 .