# Fear and terror / pathology / alcohol / violence / brutality / psychopath / serial killer / prostitution / social margin / based on the facts
The den that Fritz built
Hamburg. The 1970s. Fritz Honka is an alcoholic, a murderer and a psychopath. He’s disgusting, repulsive and unpleasant. In fact, the entire world around him looks identical. People are ugly, neglected and in an alcoholic draught. They are also destroyed, wronged and devoured by poverty and addiction. Fritz spends most of his miserable life in the “Golden Glove” bar, where pathology festers at the social margins – alcoholics, former SS men and destroyed old prostitutes – perpetually sit around. Everyone there drinks to death, stinks and thinks about meeting the simplest needs. Honka, the slum dweller, constantly hopes that he will find a woman who will be interested in him.. Due to his appearance, he can only count on insults, indiscriminate comments and contemptuous looks. He takes out his frustration on drunken prostitutes. He invites them back to his place, where he shows his true face…a ruthless monster.
Fatih Akin’s film is a piece of heavy, shocking and unpleasant cinema. The stench of pathology wafts from the screen, the characters are disgusting, the violence is disturbing because it seems so real in its bestial nature. The German director responds in a controversial way to the current fashion in cinema for the story of psychopathic murderers. This story, however, is particularly shocking. The cruelty of Honka has nothing to do with the artistry and spectacular nature of Dexter, Hannibal or any other beloved murderer. “The Golden Glove” is a perfectly crafted technical picture of a degeneration so cruel that it will make you feel uncomfortable and strangely dirty. The film is based on Heinz Strunk’s novel about a real serial killer from Hamburg.
WORLD PREMIERE: Berlin International Film Festival 2019
director: Fatih Akin writer: Fatih Akin director of photography: Rainer Klausmann editor Andrew Bird, Franziska Schmidt-Kärner cast: Jonas Dassler, Margarete Tiesel, Martina Eitner-Acheampong, Katja Studt music: Pia Hoffmann language: German subtitles: Polish
