Roy Price

15/11/2021

Monday, 15 November 2021, 08:00

The Germans forgave the Nazi criminals and it passed in silence.

This movie makes a cry

"Collini Case" is a sweeping and fascinating legal thriller, a shaky document about the way Germany reintegrated Nazi criminals and a thought-provoking film about guilt and morality

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Trailer for the movie "Collini Bag" (Red Cape)

In 1968, a law was passed in Germany stating that Nazi criminals who were not senior members of the party were defined as accomplices to the killings and not as accomplices to the murder. The semantic change was significant, as the statute of limitations regarding homicide assistance were shorter, which prevented the possibility of prosecuting many bad guys who were responsible for horrific acts. "We added a second guilt to allowing this law to pass," said director Marcus Krausspainter, who deals with the law in his film "Colini Case," based on the bestseller of the same name by Ferdinand von Schirach.

The case itself is named after Fabrizio Colini, an Italian immigrant accused in the late 1960s of the murder of billionaire Hans Meyer. The case appears to be closed - a wealth of evidence linked him to one hundred percent murder. He went down to the lobby of the luxury hotel where the murder took place, leaving a trail of blood from the elevator to the lobby, and confessed to the receptionist that he shot the businessman three times and then kicked him in the head, leaving remnants of his brain on his shoes.

The case is being taken over by Caspar Leinen, a son of a Turkish immigrant and appointed public defender whose main role is as a lawyer.

Opposite him, however, stands none other than Richard Mattinger, Professor Dr. Richard Mattinger as the Germans like to say, an elderly and experienced lawyer who was even his criminal law teacher.

He's not the only father figure for the film's protagonist - in time it turns out that Meyer was the patron of the young lawyer and the one who pushed him to study law and make a force.

"Without him, you would have sold a kebab doner," the deceased's granddaughter tells him in patronage.

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"We added a second guilt to ourselves by allowing this law to pass."

From "Collini Case" (Photo: Red Cape)

The film moves between three timelines: the main one is 2001, when the trial took place and the drama took place around it. The other returns to Mayer in flashbacks that make sure to tease the audience and present him as a kind and sweet man. The third axis takes us to a Tuscan town in 1944, during the Nazi and sadistic occupation, and begins to reveal the dark truth about who we thought was a pleasant and immaculate person.

The first turn comes when the veteran prosecutor offers the young defense attorney a deal - his client will confess to the act and in return be convicted of manslaughter only and receive a relatively light sentence. What is behind this plea deal? The script presents many more twists, and over time the issue of Colini's conviction becomes quite marginal. The film, it turns out, paints a more complex picture.

Most of all, "Collini Case" is a film about guilt - what is guilt and when it is idle.

The 44-year-old director is actually shouting here the outcry of his generation against the previous generation, who sanctified the goal beyond the means, and reintegrated the Nazis into the country to aid in their abilities to rebuild Germany.

The film is an outcry against this integration policy and against the forgiving law, which passed in the country quietly and without prominent protests.

Not to be confused with George Clooney.

From "Collini Case" (Photo: Red Cape)

Beyond his statement, the film is also successful as a legal thriller.

The court scenes are superbly made, intense and full of all good things, and also good at communicating with the audience - you don't have to be a law professor to understand what's going on in them.

We have seen quite a few films in such an scene, but the German director manages to present it in an original way with his own touch and interesting shooting angles.

The gameplay displays are also great, and especially of the legendary Franco Nero as Collini.

The film is sweeping all the way, up to its catharsis, which is executed with German restraint and without pomp, but still manages to leave a strong impression, and evoke thought long after the viewing.

"Collini Case" is a film that presents specific questions about post-war Germany, but also universal questions about intergenerational wars, guilt and morality.

Despite the implication of its name, it is not a film about Colini's story, but about a much larger story.

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• World War II