Der Fall Collini – The Collini Case (2019)

Directed by: Marco Kreuzpaintner | 123 minutes | drama, crime, thriller | Actors: Elyas M’Barek, Alexandra Maria Lara, Heiner Lauterbach, Manfred Zapatka, Jannis Niewöhner, Rainer Bock, Catrin Striebeck, Pia Stutzenstein, Peter Prager, Franco Nero, Hannes Wegener, Falk Rockstroh, Titus Flügel, Levi Kirchhoff, Anne HaugTara

When young lawyer Caspar Leinen is assigned a spectacular case, the brutally murdered victim turns out to be an old acquaintance of his. But why did his client, 70-year-old Fabrizio Collini, kill prominent and widely respected industrialist Hans Meyer? While Collini remains stubbornly silent about his motives, Caspar becomes increasingly involved in the case. In doing so, he is not only confronted with his own personal past (Meyer was a surrogate father for young Caspar and helped him make his first steps in the legal world), but he also encounters one of the biggest judicial scandals in the German court. history.

‘Der Fall Collini’ is the film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ferdinand von Schirach, a book that was certainly sold in large numbers in Germany. It’s a fairly complex story, merging an extremely dark page from German history and modern justice into a moving account of the importance of morality and justice. Central to this is the so-called Dreher law. This creative piece of legal tinkering enabled many Nazi war criminals to escape punishment and even rise to the highest ranks of post-war civil society.

Director Marco Kreuzpaintner has translated the layered source material into a solid court film that raises interesting questions about the banality of evil and the difference between legal and moral justice. We often see malice as the work of barbarian types who have completely passed over civilization, but in reality, it is often dutiful, socially incensed people in uniforms or stylish suits who commit or facilitate the greatest atrocities. The contrast between legal and moral justice is depicted in the film by the opposites Caspar Leinen and Richard Mattinger. The first is an idealistic young dog, while the second is an experienced and academically acclaimed lawyer who only believes in the hard letter of the law. It is precisely in the scenes where moral justice clashes with the hard limits of paper laws that ‘Der Fall Collini’ is at its best.

As a court film, ‘Der Fall Collini’ is convincing, especially due to the strong acting of the seasoned veterans Heiner Lauterbach (Mattinger) and Franco Nero (Collini). Although Nero has little text, his silence and facial expressions perfectly manage to portray a man consumed by rage, grief and despair.

Attempts to go beyond the boundaries of the genre yield mixed results. Sometimes the film succeeds in integrating the personal situation of protagonist Caspar organically with the broader theme of the story. A good example is the scene where the young lawyer is present at Meyer’s autopsy. The sight of the lifeless and mutilated corpse on the cutting table is skilfully intersected with images of Caspar’s warm memories of the deceased. The later revelations also place this image in a completely different perspective. On the other hand, the characterological deepening of the main characters remains a bit on the frugal side, while at a certain point the makers also visibly struggle to let some timelines flow together smoothly.

Nevertheless, ‘Der Fall Collini’ is a good film across the board, a film that is supported by a strong story, solid acting and an interesting consideration of the sometimes ambiguous character of moral and social constructions such as law and justice created by the human mind. .