Films that tell from the perspective of a perpetrator and allow victims to be seen through their eyes usually work with psychological manipulations. Sympathy for the devil, that's the concept, entertaining anxiety is the result. “Head burst”, however, Savas Ceviz's feature film debut, does not serve such narrative conventions. The film, brittle, slow and quiet, sometimes monochrome, sometimes darkly lit, on the outside as tidy and cool as the main character's apartment at the end, creating more and more pressure on the inside, is not a thriller, has nothing of crime, no police officers appear on, offenses are not shown. And yet the discomfort increases from episodically connected scene to scene. A crime could happen anytime we'd be witnessesand no one could talk himself out of the mere illustration of amorality.
Only circumstances and coincidences have so far prevented Markus (Max Riemelt) from giving in to his pedosexual inclination. At the beginning he looks like a man who has his work-life balance under control. We see Max doing kickboxing, Max in the architecture office, in the tram. He looks at two students on their way home. A colleague wants a date, he says he's scheduled, but eats alone in front of the TV and takes pictures of boys bathing from the screen. Max visits and looks at a wolf in the outdoor enclosure. The camera shows us the fur in close-up, the eyes of the caged predator, the teeth. And then the boys' hair, their necks, skin, lips. Max secretly takes photos in the swimming pool. There are hundreds of boys' photos in the drawers of his darkroom. The motives are delicate, but not explicit.The camerawoman Anne Bolick uses extreme close-ups, but does not charge any of her images in an erotic way. Pedophilia is on Max's head. However, Ceviz does not stop at this tightrope walk. The longer you watch the film, the trickier it gets. Max has a chat partner who raves about child abuse online and wants to introduce him to the scene. Max refuses and continues writing. In these scenes, also with regard to the wolf symbolism, one can distance the film as a head birth. Riemelt's differentiated, cautious and hesitant portrayal, however, takes away the distancing. At the level of the contradictions used, Ceviz, author and director, who is also responsible for editing and music, is a fox.However, Ceviz does not stop at this tightrope walk. The longer you watch the film, the trickier it gets. Max has a chat partner who raves about child abuse online and wants to introduce him to the scene. Max refuses and continues writing. In these scenes, also with regard to the wolf symbolism, one can distance the film as a head birth. Riemelt's differentiated, cautious and hesitant portrayal, however, takes away the distancing. At the level of the contradictions used, Ceviz, author and director, who is also responsible for editing and music, is a fox.However, Ceviz does not stop at this tightrope walk. The longer you watch the film, the trickier it gets. Max has a chat partner who raves about child abuse online and wants to introduce him to the scene. Max refuses and continues writing. In these scenes, also with regard to the wolf symbolism, one can distance the film as a head birth. Riemelt's differentiated, cautious and hesitant portrayal, however, takes away the distancing. At the level of the contradictions used, Ceviz, author and director, who is also responsible for editing and music, is a fox.also with regard to the wolf symbolism, one can distance the film as a head birth. Riemelt's differentiated, cautious and hesitant portrayal, however, takes away the distancing. At the level of the contradictions used, Ceviz, author and director, who is also responsible for editing and music, is a fox.also with regard to the wolf symbolism, one can distance the film as a head birth. Riemelt's differentiated, cautious and hesitant portrayal, however, takes away the distancing. At the level of the contradictions used, Ceviz, author and director, who is also responsible for editing and music, is a fox.
“Head burst” forks into two storylines that are not constantly mirrored, but both lead to tragedy. After Markus revealed himself to his family doctor (Michael Schenk) and was sent away, he meets a psychiatrist who explains the difference between inclination and action. A television film aimed more at clarity showed both Max and the therapist speaking alternately during this conversation. Here the camera is almost all alone with Max and his view out of the window into the open air. His will happens as long as he does not use it. A paradox. “Head burst” can also be seen as a comment on self-determination of free will. On Max's kitchen table there is a note of assurance with a quote from Nietzsche. But the love for Arthur (Oskar Netzel) is not “beyond good and evil”.Arthur, the son of the single neighbor Jessica (Isabell Gerschke), attracts him more than control and medication can prevent.
It is astonishing that this film, which is visually precise and difficult to sustain, is a debut production. Cevaz's portrait drama makes many wise decisions, does not play down, does not demonize, and from the beginning indicates a hopeless end. One can ask why one as a viewer should expose oneself to such a difficult subject, which, for example, in a scene in the swimming pool shower in which Max is soaking up Arthur's hair and back, is shaken by almost unbearably close observation.
The answer can also be found in Nietzsche: Ecce homo.
Human, not a monster.
That this remarkable film looks at, sees and describes, but not exculpates.
No stage for perpetrators, that's not the point.
Nevertheless, “head burst” contains more material for discussion than is so common in “relevant” productions on public television.
Head bursting
, at 23.05 in the First