Opening 7 Mar 2013
Directed by:
Jan Schütte
Writing credits:
Jan Schütte
Principal actors:
Björn Grundies, André Kaczmarczyk, Annedore Kleist, Jörg Rathjen, Hans-Michael Rehberg
August Manzl (Hans-Michael Rehberg), obnoxious patriarch of a dysfunctional family, has not much time left to live and wants to be put out of his misery. He orders his children Karl (Oliver Sauer), Hugo (Stephan Schad) and Sylvia (Susanne Wolff) – all of whom he detests – back home, and offers each of them “a shot” at killing him. The prize: the entire estate. The catch: the killing has to be documented and accomplished within one week; otherwise none of them inherits anything. The difficulty: fierce competition, and a suspicious victim. The old man’s thinking: they are too stupid and cowardly to do it anyway. Too stupid? We’ll see. But they do get over any scruples pretty quickly and the sons can count on dedicated accomplices.
The old man watches the activities somewhat amused, but then starts getting nervous after all. Threatening to jeopardize the plans are his ever present secretary (Anne Weber) and his favorite daughter Elisabeth (Pheline Roggan), who arrives uninvited. A well-chosen cast and (too) many amusing ideas: the film would have greatly benefited if director/writer Jan Georg Schütte would have parted with some scenes and ideas. (Carola A)
