The Collini Case

A courtroom film set in Germany. An elderly industrialist is killed in a hotel suite. The killer does not run; he sits in the lobby and waits for the police. His name is Fabrizio Collini. He worked in a German factory for thirty-five years, has no record, and says nothing. Caspar Leinen is a new lawyer. He has just been admitted and is appointed as duty counsel. Then he learns who the victim was. The dead man is the grandfather of someone who treated Leinen like a second father in childhood. He could withdraw. He does not. From there the film becomes a story about archives. Collini will not speak, there is no motive in the file, and Leinen has to find the reason himself. The trail leads to Italy. A reprisal carried out in a village in 1944, and the officer who ordered it. The man was never tried after the war. His file was opened and closed, and the reason is a change in the law. What the narrative is interested in is not murder but limitation: at its centre is an amendment made in 1968 and passed without debate in parliament; after it many war crimes became acts of assistance and fell outside the time limit. The person who drafted the amendment is inside the narrative too. What the lawyer who wrote the text did during the war is stated openly in the film. The trial scenes are dry. The narrative makes no display; the argument runs through documents and dates. The source is Ferdinand von Schirach's novel. When the book appeared in 2011 it caused argument in Germany and entered the agenda of an official review looking into the background of that amendment. Elyas M'Barek was known in Germany for comedies; this was noted as his first serious dramatic role. Elyas M'Barek, Alexandra Maria Lara, Heiner Lauterbach and Franco Nero are in the cast. Marco Kreuzpaintner directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes courtroom drama and reckonings with recent history. Who it is not for: anyone looking for suspense; the narrative proceeds predictably and the romantic subplot is unnecessary.