The Kick / Der Kick

In July 2002 two teenage brothers and their friend brutally tortured and, with a fatal kick to the head, executed a 16-year-old boy. Their victim, a hip hop fan with a tendency to stutter, was known to the perpetrators from their home town of Potzlow, north of Berlin. When the body was found four months later and the three skinheads were charged with his murder, widespread public outrage ensued. The media debated the causes of this horrific crime – racism, social deprivation, binge drinking or the influence of violent films.
Acclaimed filmmaker Andres Veiel’s approach to the story of the “skinhead murder”, however, is a far cry from media sensation and public hysteria. Interviews with relatives and neighbours and the investigation and court records formed the basis for an experimental stage play and subsequently a “docu-play”. Veiel’s provocation lies in the radical form and the way he provides the biographies behind the crime.