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Movie poster

Obituary of a Beast

19850.0 / 1060 min
Documentary

Overview

Between 1962 and 1966, sex murderer Jurgen Bartsch cruelly tortured and killed four children in an old air raid bunker in Germany. This documentary examines the personality of the killer who died in 1976 during voluntary castration surgery at the age of 30. Vilified by the press for his heinous crime, Bartsch also became a case study for famous found criminal psychologists like Alice Miller (who maintains that no one abuses without being abused as a child, and murderers tend to have their own childhood abuse denied by the adults around them). Bartsch never met his birth parents, he was raised in a clinic and later adopted by a cold, unaffectionate couple. By the age of 15, he tortured and killed his first child victim. This informative, fact-filled documentary provides enough details for viewers to come away with a broader understanding of the nature of the criminally insane and society's role in their formation.

Cast

Wilfried Rasch

Wilfried Rasch

Himself

Crew

Rolf Schübel

Rolf Schübel

Director

Michael Lentz

Michael Lentz

Screenplay

Michael Lentz

Michael Lentz

Idea

Rolf Schübel

Rolf Schübel

Screenplay

Jelka Naber

Jelka Naber

Producer

Ingeborg Janiczek

Ingeborg Janiczek

Producer

Niels Bolbrinker

Niels Bolbrinker

Director of Photography

Harald Reetz

Harald Reetz

Editor