Murderous Decisions

A giallo by ACADEMY AWARD nominee Oliver Hirschbiegel as a television experiment

On December 15, 1991, a remarkable experiment took place on the German television stations ARD and ZDF. From 9 p.m. Both channels showed an unusually hard thriller at the same time, which was broadcast in two different versions. After a common beginning, version 1 followed the events from the perspective of the female main character (Mapi Galan), while version 2 focused on the male main character (Nils Tavernier). The viewer should switch back and forth between the two versions independently without running the risk of missing the connection.

It was about a crazy lust murderer in the milieu of the television industry. And things really got going. I remember some intense sex and violence scenes that were not yet standard television entertainment at the time. Both versions were more in the style of a giallo, which wasn't one of my favorite genres at the time.

Oliver Hirschbiegel, who was very successful in the cinema a decade later with "The Experiment" and "The Downfall", already made a notable mark as a director, which unfortunately was all too quickly forgotten. The viewers distributed their favor fairly (6.5 million each) between both channels and thus ensured a very good overall audience rating. I remember that after an initial phase of zapping around, I stuck with one of the two versions.

Michael Byrne, Malgoscha Gebel, Ralf Zacher, Paulus Manker and the unforgettable Brigitte Mira (Fear eats the soul) were seen in other roles.

To my knowledge, there has never been another experiment of this kind.