“The Collini case” (ARD): Elyas M'Barek and Franco Nero cannot save the crime thriller

The cinema adaptation of a novel by Ferdinand von Schirach is a poor copy of American criminal crime novels.

Frankfurt – The young lawyer Caspar Leinen (Elyas M’Barek) practices in a corner shop with a graffiti facade in the Berlin neighborhood. After work, he thrashes the sandbag. A lawyer who comes from below, who, as the symbolic images suggest, has pushed his way through. He does not seem to have many clients and is probably not unhappy that the court has given him legal defense.

His client is the native Italian Fabrizio Collini (Franco Nero), who has lived in Germany for thirty years. There is no doubt about his act, the viewers were eyewitnesses: Collini, as an alleged journalist, had contacted the very old industrialist Jean-Baptiste – alias Hans – Meyer (Manfred Zapatka) and was received by him in a hotel suite for an interview. Collini fired three shots at the old man and also crushed his face. Then he stoically waited for the police to arrive. A crime of intent and evident hatred. The defense attorney has little more than to negotiate a low sentence.

“The Collini case” (ARD): Adaptation based on Ferdinand von Schirach

But Collini makes it extremely difficult for linen, remains silent, just stubbornly stared to himself. One of Linen’s former professors, the star lawyer Richard Mattinger (Heiner Lauterbach), represents the opposing side as a joint plaintiff. He recommends that his former student persuade Collini to confess. In return, he could persuade the public prosecutor (Rainer Bock) to reduce the charge from murder to manslaughter.

Public prosecutor and co-plaintiff are obviously in league. It is possible that the assignment of the mandate to the inexperienced defense lawyer Leinen was part of a concerted intrigue.

“The Collini case” (ARD): Historical crimes

“The Collini case” (ARD) is based on the novel of the same name by the lawyer and writer Ferdinand von Schirach. In it, Schirach recalls a controversial chapter in German legal history. In 1968 the far-reaching “Introductory Act to the Law on Administrative Offenses” was passed, which had the purpose of reorganizing petty offenses and relieving the courts, but at the same time resulted in the premature limitation of Nazi crimes. For some a glitch in the legislative process, for others a cleverly planned project. A remarkable personality: Eduard Dreher, a former Nazi public prosecutor, was involved in drafting the law.

Schirach’s complex template was immensely simplified by the team of authors Christian Zübert, Robert Gold, Jens-Frederik Otto for the cinema adaptation by director Marco Kreuzpaintner, and the staff was reduced. At the expense of credibility. The murder of a well-known industrialist like Jean-Baptiste Meyer in the German capital would make headlines in reality, dominate TV news and the talk of the day. Nevertheless, attorney Leinen realized who the victim was with a delay. All the more surprising because Meyer was a kind of foster father for Leinen. He had made it possible for Caspar to study, the young lawyer still drives the old-timer that the car fanatic Meyer had given him when he passed his Abitur.

With Meyer’s granddaughter Johanna (Alexandra Maria Lara), Caspar had an affair at a young age that revived after Johanna traveled from London to the trial. So it is completely absurd that Caspar Leinen, of all things, escaped the violent death of his mentor.

“Fall Collini” (ARD): Plump plot twist

From a novel with historical and ethical implications, disregarding the German procedural rules, a US-style judicial crime thriller. The model is not only known from film adaptations of John Grisham novels: Freshmen compete against hardened luminaries, inexperienced young professionals assert themselves despite their inexperience through courage and cleverness against overpowering opponents and a conspiratorial system. David versus Goliath.

The “Collini case” lacks the finesse that characterizes better criminal crime fiction. For example, Caspar Leinen is amazed at the rare and hard-to-find murder weapon, then out of the blue it occurs to him that his foster father Meyer also had such a model. This twist in the plot turns out so clumsy that it amounts to breaking an illusion. Even in German lawyer series like “Liebling Kreuzberg”, “Edel & Starck” and “Danni Lowinski” there have been more solidly built plots.

In the “Collini case” (ARD), the judgment is left to the public

In this way, the opportunity is given away to generate excitement through detailed detective work. Instead, those involved use the simplest dramaturgical tricks. They contain crucial information for the audience and allow surprise witnesses to appear at the finale. Time and again the logic falls by the wayside, starting with the fact that Collini is stubbornly silent, although it should be his concern to make Meyer’s guilt and the failure of German jurisprudence public. He would certainly be interested in the public.

Compared to the novel, by the way, the German war crimes shown in flashbacks have been mitigated, rape and pillage have been deleted. In the finale, the scriptwriters stay true to the template. The verdict is not made in the courtroom, but left to the public. The film, which is not always convincing in terms of staging, does not provide the necessary prerequisites for this, because a ridiculous narrative routine and superficial manipulation obscure and distort the view of the legal bases and moral questions. (Harald Keller)