In German-speaking countries, the director Hans Werner GEISSENDÖRFER is best known as the inventor of the ARD television series LINDENSTRASSE, which was discontinued in 2020 after a total of 35 years of running. GEISSENDÖRFER has also made successful films and was nominated for an ACADEMY AWARD in 1979 for DIE GLÄSERNE ZELLE.
After a few years in prison, the architect Philipp Braun (BAMBI AWARD winner Helmut GRIEM) is released. He finds it very difficult to connect professionally and privately. His wife (Brigitte FOSSEY) is now having an affair with Philipp's lawyer (Dieter LASER), on whom the innocently convicted man still depends. It is only with his help that he finds a new job with Director Goller (Günter STRACK). Philipp Braun is still eager to punish the truly guilty and is becoming more and more obsessed with this. There's actually a murder happening...
An ice-cold psychological thriller from West Germany: That doesn't happen very often in German-language cinema. GEISSENDÖRFER relocates the novel by Patricia HIGHSMITH (1921-1995), published in 1964, to Frankfurt am Main. And that fits perfectly. The banking metropolis is the German-speaking city with a large number of high-rise buildings. So there are lots of job opportunities for an architect! And lots of opportunities for fraud and botched construction! The twin towers of Deutsche Bank were being built at the end of the 1970s, which also fits in perfectly with the story being told. Wavering between relationship drama and psychological thriller, the audience doesn't know what will happen next. Helmut GRIEM (1932-2004), who is also known from the musical "CABARET" and the mini-series "Peter the Great", is convincing as a driven man who fights for his shattered life with all means possible.
Walter KOHUT and ACADEMY AWARD nominee Bernhard WICKI ("Die Brücke") can also be seen in other roles.
After a few years in prison, the architect Philipp Braun (BAMBI AWARD winner Helmut GRIEM) is released. He finds it very difficult to connect professionally and privately. His wife (Brigitte FOSSEY) is now having an affair with Philipp's lawyer (Dieter LASER), on whom the innocently convicted man still depends. It is only with his help that he finds a new job with Director Goller (Günter STRACK). Philipp Braun is still eager to punish the truly guilty and is becoming more and more obsessed with this. There's actually a murder happening...
An ice-cold psychological thriller from West Germany: That doesn't happen very often in German-language cinema. GEISSENDÖRFER relocates the novel by Patricia HIGHSMITH (1921-1995), published in 1964, to Frankfurt am Main. And that fits perfectly. The banking metropolis is the German-speaking city with a large number of high-rise buildings. So there are lots of job opportunities for an architect! And lots of opportunities for fraud and botched construction! The twin towers of Deutsche Bank were being built at the end of the 1970s, which also fits in perfectly with the story being told. Wavering between relationship drama and psychological thriller, the audience doesn't know what will happen next. Helmut GRIEM (1932-2004), who is also known from the musical "CABARET" and the mini-series "Peter the Great", is convincing as a driven man who fights for his shattered life with all means possible.
Walter KOHUT and ACADEMY AWARD nominee Bernhard WICKI ("Die Brücke") can also be seen in other roles.