Film Archive

Normal: The Düsseldorf Ripper

Czech Films 2009-2010 2010 / Normal / Czech Republic, North Macedonia 2009

Dreaded serial killer Peter Kurten voluntarily turns himself over to the authorities. A young lawyer, eager to prove Kurten’s mental derangement, agrees to defend a man who terrorized Germany between 1929 and 1931. In studying the case and meeting with the intelligent, cold-blooded manipulator, the young idealist’s values become warped.... Director Julius Ševčík’s expressive thriller relativizes questions of crime, punishment, and normality just prior to the rise of Nazism in Germany.

Synopsis

Between February 1929 and October 1931 Peter Kurten killed at least eight people and attacked numerous others. When The Vampire of Düsseldorf, as the dreaded serial killer was dubbed, voluntarily turned himself over to the authorities, another horrifying chapter of his story began. An ambitious young lawyer named Justus Werner took up the murderer’s defense with the aim of demonstrating that Kurten was mentally deranged, hoping that he would end up in a psychiatric institute rather than on the gallows. In studying the case and meeting with the intelligent, cold-blooded manipulator, the young idealist’s values become warped. Kurten’s devoted wife Marie plays a role in this as well.... Director Julius Ševčík’s expressive thriller relativizes questions of crime, punishment, and normality just prior to the rise of Nazism in Germany. Doesn’t a morally twisted society create its own murderers? Loosely based on actual events, the movie took the Golden Goblet for direction at the Shanghai IFF.

About the film

85 min / Color, 35 mm

Director Julius Ševčík / Screenplay Julius Ševčík podle hry Anthonyho Neilsona / based on the play Normal: the Düsseldorf Ripper by Anthony Neilson / Dir. of Photography Antonio Riestra / Music Jan P. Muchow / Editor Marek Opatrný / Producer Karla Stojáková / Production Axman Production / Cast Milan Kňažko, Dagmar Havlová, Pavel Gajdoš, Zuzana Kajnarová, Miroslav Táborský, Jan Vlasák / Contact Axman Production, Bontonfilm, a.s. / Distributor Bontonfilm, a.s.

About the director

Julius Ševčík (b. 1978, Prague) gained recognition while still in school at New York Film Academy (NYFA) with a four-minute, writer-director, black-and-white short entitled The Spiral (1997). In 1999-2005 he directed TV commercials and short films. He concluded his studies in direction at Prague’s Film Academy (FAMU) with the formally inventive feature film Restart (2005). Another product of his student days, the medium-length movie 51 Kilohertz (2003) brought awards at several foreign festivals (Rome, Rio de Janeiro, Clermont-Ferrand, etc.). In 2008 he worked for the magazine at Nova Cinema TV which focuses on Czech film production and Czech film festivals. He divides his professional and private lives between the Czech Republic and Los Angeles.