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JENSEITS VON SCHULD


Katharina Köster, Katrin Nemec, GER, 2024, 79'
INTERNATIONAL Premiere
Screenings:
Thu. 15.8.2024, 11h00, La Sala
Fri. 16.8.2024, 9h00, Palacinema 1

en / it / de / fr

The true crime genre is perhaps one of the most popular with the audience today. TV series, podcasts, and documentaries all over the world investigate murders, disappearances, and other crime events with an emotional emphasis on victims and perpetrators, turning the traumas of families and entire communities into entertainment products. Among the crowded daily proposals, only few projects have any form of respect for the people involved and the topics covered.

Katharina Köster and Katrin Nemec's film, on the other hand, is of a higher caliber and gives space to the forgotten and "collateral" victims of a shocking serial murder case, documenting the daily life of the parents of Niels Högel, a German serial killer nurse convicted of killing about 90 patients.

The discreet but attentive eye of the filmmakers moves through Ulla and Didi Högel's house, accompanies them to the beach, to the supermarket, and follows them when they go to visit their son in prison. The camera takes in their quiet, lucid sorrow, the trauma and guilt that no one wanted to hear and that overwhelmed them in 2005. It witnesses togetherness, marriage, and its deeper meaning. Love beyond set phrases, forgiveness that does not deny guilt, and the dignity of those who face the complexity of human emotions. A film that reflects deeply on what it means to be parents, together, and on the role of the media, on what must finally be shown, and what it is right not to show.

Chiara Fanetti