Little Murders (2012)

Movie
Original title	Small murders
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Publishing year	2011
length	94 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Adnan G. Köse
script	Adnan G. Köse
production	Neslihan Duy ; Eyyüphan Duy
music	Philipp F. Koelmel
camera	James Jacobs
cut	Manuel Reidinger
occupation
	Paul Falk : Martin Brinkhoff; Ann-Kathrin Kramer : Julia Corner; Uwe Ochsenknecht : Wilhelm Brinkhoff; Jimi Blue Ochsenknecht : Viktor Gumm; Günther Kaufmann : Josef Gossmann; Jasmin Schwiers : Noela Muth; Udo Schenk : Chief Inspector Schaller; Olaf Krätke : Valentin Gumm; August Carter: Bodo Brack; Peter Herff : Commissioner Maran; Maurizio Magno : Tobias Sesser; Andreas Joachim Hertel : Stefan Vierst; Alexander von Glenck : Defendant Dr. Starner; Dave Kaufmann : Attorney General; Heinz W. Krückeberg : Presiding judge; Irma Barry-Schmitt : Marlies Brack;

Kleine Morde is a German psychological thriller from 2012.

The screenplay by Adnan G. Köse, which was awarded a prize by the Filmstiftung NRW in 1995, is a metaphor for guilt and atonement and an accusation against a society that cares poorly for its children emotionally, according to the author. It is the last film by Fassbinder actor Günther Kaufmann . The rental company is Studio Canal.

action

A spokesman explains that the action takes place in Germany in the near future. This is followed by quick images of the murder of a little boy who is photographed with a flashlight and then shot. The murderer remains undetected.

After the title, the background of the main characters is built. Star lawyer Julia Corner wins a difficult case, but her client, psychologist Dr. Klaus Starner, shortly afterwards committed suicide in the courthouse. The twelve-year-old Martin Brinkhoff, son of a judge, is present as a visitor and sees both judgment and suicide. He is well brought up, educated and helpful, but against the wishes of his single conservative father, he is friends with the taxi driver and gun man Victor Gumm.

The police find the boy's body from the entrance scene in an industrial wasteland. Surveillance cameras in a mall reveal that Martin was one of the last people to see the victim alive. Martin protests his innocence to his father and the police. The boy got lost, Martin helped him find his mother and a friend, Bodo, was a witness.

Martin tries to convince his friend Victor Gumm to give him a false alibi. He protests his innocence, but he is afraid of the mills of justice, which he knows very well through his father. Ultimately, he can blackmail him because he spies on Victor and witnesses how he raped Martins' teacher, Noela Muth, with whom Victor had a love affair, in her single house.

Contradicting witness statements, the discovery of Martin's analog camera and his fingerprints at the scene of the crime, and the testimony of a Mr. Gossmann intensify the suspicion directed at Martin. The indictment comes and Julia Corner is hired as a lawyer. Another suspect is the undetectable child murderer Stefan Vierst, who broke out of a psychiatric ward. He was a patient of Dr. Klaus Starner.

At the request of the public prosecutor, Martin is examined in a child psychology clinic. During the inpatient examination, Martin's father dies of a heart attack in his villa. Martin is now orphaned.

Lawyer Corner continues to question Martin's environment. Martins' teacher (and ex-lover and rape victim of Martin's friend Victor, mentioned above) affirms how helpful and truthful Martin is. In a shed in Witness Gossmann's yard, lawyer Corner finally finds the means to rebut his testimony in court. In addition, Martin had lost the camera in Viktor's taxi and the fingerprints were on the scene, as Martin often played there.

In court, Viktor Gumm withdraws the statement he had just made that he drove around with Martin at the time of the crime, because his grandfather notices the discrepancy in the courtroom and speaks to her loudly. The hearing is interrupted and as a result, Victor himself is targeted by the investigators, also because Noela, Martin's teacher, finally talks to Ms. Corner about her rape and points out Victor's large collection of weapons and his affinity for violence.

production

The script was not implemented for 18 years, until the scriptwriter and director Adan G. Köse happened upon an old school friend, the entrepreneur Eyyüphan Duy. He suggested that we simply shoot the film ourselves. The production company SteelWorX Film Production GmbH was founded in 2011 and managed by producer Neslihan Duy.

With a planned budget of 1.2 million euros and an actual budget of 1.4 million, the film was shot for 27 days in spring 2011. Kleine Morde was financially supported by the DFFF , the Filmstiftung NRW, co-producer Alexander von Gleng, the project deinKult.de and many others.

For the young production company from Oberhausen it was the first feature film and so new and unusual approaches could and were tried. Some roles, especially the reporter, are journalists in real life. This is how you wanted to achieve authenticity. It is also unusual that an advertising specialist was hired as art director (Timo Breunig) - such positions are actually only appointed for animation films - they wanted a different perspective on the film business. Unusually, Eyyüphan Duy also did the entire casting alone. Old home scenes from the lives of Adnan G. Köse and Eyyüphan Duy were used as filming locations, such as the Marienschule primary school in Lohberg, the joint secondary school Glück Auf (also Lohberg), the Duys work site - the Lohberg colliery mine where his father's worked. The production company also organized the premiere itself (in Oberhausen), usually the work of the rental company.

The locations were also the town hall of Oberhausen and the Forum Duisburg , as well as Hünxe . A total of over 400 cast and crew were involved.

The final track song Fireless was recorded by the band The Black Sheep - a music video was also created with excerpts from the film.

The premiere was on September 19, 2012 in the Lichtburg Oberhausen. It started in theaters on September 20, 2012. The box-office income in Germany was 6,130.00 euros: the total number of cinema-goers was 1,383.

criticism

“Adnan G. Köse has shown courage with his genre scenario, which is rather unusual at least in German cinema. Courage alone is not enough. The director never really decides whether he wants to create a dystopian vision of the future or rather draw the psychogram of a sociopathic murderer. In the end, “Small Murders” is neither one nor the other. But Köse uses all imaginable clichés and pretty much every low instinct of the audience. "

- filmstarts.de

"After all, the film proves that in the German dark film, zombies and splatters are not always needed to shock a little here and there and to entertain with a certain claim"

- ofdb.de - online film database