The Golden Glove

The most controversial film of this year's Berlinale this is Fatih Akin's ironic commentary on the growing popularity stories about serial killers. Fritz Honka (played by the frighteningly credible Jonas Dassler) is a walking contradiction to the smooth-faced Zak Efron from Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. Disgusting both morally and physically, the man is one of the regulars of the dingy Der Goldene Handschuh bar in Hamburg. It is there that Honka finds his victims - prostitutes who he lures to his apartment and then murders with particular cruelty. While portraying the killer, Akin does not look away and offers the viewer no mercy. Film violence is shown in an extremely realistic way, and the evil done by Honka has no ambiguous charm. The director also does not allow his story to be treated as a closed case from a distant past; although the film's action takes place in the seventies, the protagonist’s misogynist and xenophobic tirades seem disturbingly fitting today.