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No Glove No Love: Akin Revels in Garish Grotesqueries with Squalid Period Piece

Turkish-German director Fatih Akin resurrects the obscure German serial killer Fritz Honka in the grotesque 1970s set The Golden Glove, an exercise clearly designed to disgust, assail and repulse. In these terms, it is the director’s most effective exercise to date, a formidable gut punch and a far cry from the topical proselytizing of his homegrown terror drama In the Fade.

Based on a 2016 novel by Heinz Strunk, Akin paints a portrait of a madman whose crimes flourished in the squalid red-light district of 1970s Hamburg, brutally raping and murdering a number of prostitutes over several years before his neglectful disposal of their dismembered bodies finally brought his killing spree to an end.…...

Starring Jonas Dassler, Margarethe Tiesel Written by Fatih Akin (screenplay), Heinz Strunk (novel) Directed by Fatih Akin The Golden Glove pulls from previously-banned shock cinema classics like Gerald Kargl’s Angst in a shared earnest observation of its subjects, while it’s cruel refusal to let the viewer opt out of participation recalls Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. […]

The post Fantastic Fest 2019: The Golden Glove Review – Filthy Shock Horror Leavened With Humanity appeared first on Dread Central.

Fatih Akin’s latest movie is a fetid stain on the CV of a good filmmaker. Akin has made the true story of a repulsive, grotesque serial killer into a repulsive, grotesque movie, a calamitous misfire for a critical darling of recent German cinema. This is a film that wallows in the most appalling sexual abuse, that fetishizes facial disfigurement and physical deformity and, most cowardly of all, gives no voice to women who were the victims of horrific historic crimes. Set in the early 1970s, it offers a view into many of the trappings of that era’s misogyny, but gives nothing in the way of ironic retrospection or insight–especially inexcusable in today’s #MeToo era. The House of Jack Built, released to indignant uproar last year, is a profound statement of human condition by comparison.

Based on a non-fiction novel by Heinz Strunk, this is the story...

Seven titles have now taken their spots.

Three new titles have taken their places on the Screen Berlin jury grid, with Wang Quan’an’s Öndög still in first place with an updated score of 2.8.

Berlinale regular Fatih Akin’s The Golden Glove fared just Ok with the jurors, managing an average of 2.0 with one score still to come. It had a mode score of one (poor) from 3 critics, although this was broken up with a three (good) from Film Art’s Anton Dolin and a four (excellent) from Segnocinema’s Paolo Bertolin.

The film is an adaptation of Heinz Strunk’s 2016 novel,...

A recurring controversy flared up again at last month’s Sundance festival, this time with the Zac Efron-starring Ted Bundy biopic “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” as its lit match: Where is the line drawn between representation and celebration in films about appalling figures, particularly with a swoon-worthy sex symbol in the lead? That’s an issue less likely to be raised with “The Golden Glove,” Fatih Akin’s hyper-grisly true-crime study of another notorious 1970s serial killer, Fritz Honka: No one could accuse the German filmmaker of glamorizing anyone or anything in a film so strenuously dedicated to its own seaminess, you can practically smell the human flesh rotting on screen.

As played by 22-year-old actor Jonas Dassler, aged up and slathered in repulsive prosthetics, the film’s Honka is practically the anti-Efron/Bundy: a freakish charisma void so inhuman that it’s hard to feel...

“The Golden Glove,” Golden Bear winner Fatih Akin’s film about a real-life serial killer, has been sold to multiple territories, including Japan, Spain and Italy, by German sales agent The Match Factory.

The film is scheduled to world-premiere Saturday in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Set in the 1970s, the pic tells the story of Fritz Honka, who killed at least four women in Hamburg’s red-light district. Akin’s screenplay is based on the novel of the same name by Heinz Strunk.

The film, which will be released by Pathe in France and Warner Bros. in Germany, has now been acquired by Bitters End in Japan, Vertigo in Spain, Bim in Italy, Cineart in Benelux and Rosebud in Greece. Other buyers include Vertigo in Hungary, Independenta Film 97 in Romania, Art Fest in Bulgaria, A-One Films in the Baltic states, McF MegaCom Film in the former Yugoslavia, and Bio Paradis in Iceland.

Variety has been given exclusive access to first-look footage from Fatih Akin’s horror film “The Golden Glove,” which has its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. Akin has previously won the Golden Globe, Berlin’s Golden Bear, Venice’s Special Jury Prize, and Cannes’ screenplay award.

Set in Hamburg’s St. Pauli district in the 1970s, the film tells the true story of serial killer Fritz Honka. Akin’s screenplay is based on the novel of the same name by Heinz Strunk.

The action centers on Honka’s favorite bar, the Golden Glove, where schmaltzy German songs move the boozy barflies to tears and drinking is a reflex against pain and longing.

At first glance, Honka – played by Jonas Dassler – is a pitiful loser. The man with the broken face carouses through his nights in the Golden Glove, chasing after lonely women. None of the regulars suspects that...

The Golden Glove (Der goldene Handschuh)

Germany’s Fatih Akin turns to horror for his tenth feature, The Golden Glove, which relays the true story of a 1970s serial killer who hunted prostitutes in Hamburg’s red light district. Produced by Akin and Nurhan Sekerci-Porst through his company bombero international, the film is also a co-production with Pathe and Warner Bros. Films Productions Germany. Utilizing his regular Dp Rainer Klausmann, the cast includes Jonas Dassler, Margarethe Tiesel, Uwe Rohde, Victoria Trauttmansdorff, Marc Hosemann, Hark Bohm, Heinz Strunk and Tristan Göbel. Akin competed in Locarno with his 1998 debut Short Sharp Shock but came to prominence in 2004 when his title Head-On won the Golden Bear in Berlin.…...

15 years after taking home the Golden Bear for “Head-On” — and a year after winning a Golden Globe for “In the Fade” — Fatih Akin is returning to the Berlin Film Festival with “The Golden Glove.” The German director, whose most recent offering also netted Best Actress laurels at Cannes for Diane Kruger, is one of six filmmakers announced as part of the 2019 Berlinale lineup. Joining him are Marie Kreutzer, Denis Côté, François Ozon, Angela Schanelec, and Emin Alper.

An adaptation of Heinz Strunk’s novel, “The Golden Glove” is based on the true story of a serial killer active in the red-light district of Hamburg throughout the 1970s. Ozon, meanwhile, returns to the festival with “By the Grace of God,” which follows a man named Alexandre who decides to take action upon learning that the priest who abused him as a child remains involved with children.

The festival also announced three...

New films by Francois Ozon, Fatih Akin and Denis Cote are among the titles that will compete for the Golden Bear at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival.

German director Akin’s “Der Goldene Handschuh” (“The Golden Glove”) and French helmer Ozon’s “Grâce à dieu” (“By the Grace of God”) were announced by the Berlinale in its first batch of competition films Thursday. Akin won the Golden Bear in 2004 with “Head-On.”

The lineup also includes “Der Boden unter den Fuessen” (“The Ground Beneath My Feet”) by Austrian director Marie Kreutzer; “Répertoire des villes disparues” (“Ghost Town Anthology”) by Canadian director Cote; “Ich war zuhause, aber” by German director Angela Schanelec; and “Kız Kardeşler” (“A Tale of Three Sisters”) by Turkish helmer Emin Alper.

All six competition films unveiled Thursday will have their world premieres in Berlin with the exception of “By the Grace of God,” which gets its international premiere at the festival.