Hanau (Deutschland im Winter - Part 1)

To the victims of this horrible crime - and to filmmaking in general. Uwe Boll had officially left the director's chair a few years prior to this movie, but this time he thought the incident was too important. Maybe he felt he had something to say, to let us know what is going on in Germany nowadays or pay respect to the victims and so on. And in principle, he's right. Right-wing positions have moved more and more into the middle of society. The rise of the AfD, and conservative parties trying to imitate them with slightly less harsh statements, proves that.

So yes, there's something going on here, and a voice to contextualize it might be exactly what we need right now. Sadly, it's not Boll's voice. Since that was never his intention from the start. In this movie we follow the shooter, an unemployed racist. Boll let us hear his twisted and hateful worldview through voiceovers, and he films it in such a cheap way that it feels like watching a home video from the neighbours kid who had just got an old video camera from his grandpa. Seriously: Most videos from moderately successful YouTubers have more production value than this movie. We follow the killer in the hours before the shooting and through the incident itself. The victims exist only to be killed on camera. For Boll, everything else seems unnecessary - and that's unbearable. I don't need this movie to truly feel sorry for the victims and their families. What should they feel when confronted with this film? Seeing their loved ones killed without any sympathy or whatsoever. Honestly: What is this movie about and what's there for the viewer to learn?!

That a guy living with his mother, gathering his "knowledge" from 4chan, Telegram, and similar sources, is a complete idiot - that's nothing new. But that's essentially what the first 50 minutes of this short "movie" are about. Afterwards, we see real footage of demonstrations: neo-Nazis, Covid-activists, PEGIDA, people standing with Ukraine (there were some Ukrainian flags, but the segment was so short I didn't even get why it was included), and a clip of the famous Orange blathering something. Since it's a kinda documentary after all some context/explanation would have been very useful for the viewer. I'm sure there are happy people (no pun intended) out there who have never heard of QAnon and what's behind that. Some narrative would change a lot and give your movie some additional value. So, those wildly chopped together snippets lasts only a few minutes, and then we see Boll driving to the city of Hanau, visiting the crime scenes, and explaining to us what we just saw. Nothing more, nothing less. Really "honest" filmmaking here - just to drag this abomination past the 60-minute mark.

I've seen a few Boll movies, and most of them were poorly made, but this one is simply horrible and probably his worst. Lazy filmmaking - and utterly disrespectful. In the end credits he claims this wasn't his intention, and I know he has made political statements over the years. Boll is someone with opinions and has no hesitation to express them. And he's certainly no sympathizer of right-wing positions - quite the opposite, in fact. Which makes it even more maddening what he has done with this film.

The best thing about it? Nobody is going to watch it - except for a few curious nerds like me.

Hanau (Deutschland im Winter - Part 1) (2022) is a drama movie written and directed by Uwe Boll and it shows the night of terror on February 19th, 2020. This movie was a first time watch for me and it was unbelievably awful.

Positives for Hanau (Deutschland im Winter - Part 1) (2022): I have no positives for this movie.

Negatives for Hanau (Deutschland im Winter - Part 1) (2022): This movie has everything I hate about Uwe Boll, but this time he decided to make a movie about real events that did happen. The acting from the cast is just atrocious. The violence is too extreme and done in poor taste. The pacing is very messy and it drags the story down so much. And finally, the ending is one of the worst I've in a movie that has come out in the 2020s so far.

Overall, Hanau (Deutschland im Winter - Part 1) (2022) is one of the worst movies based on real events in a very long time and it is just another example why Uwe Boll will always be the worst filmmaker in the history of cinema.

So this was not something I was looking forward to watch. It popped up at a streaming service (Prime) and since it had gotten so much attention and a lot of press, I thought I'd see what the fuss is about. Now I do know what this is based on - therefor I knew this would not be an easy movie to watch anyway. And Kudos to the main actor for having the courage to go through with the role and the movie. Uwe Boll being the director some already will have their mind made up as to what they think about this.

Let's break it down, how I see it. As you can tell I am not too pleased by the end result, but that is me. I think the documentary that already exists may have served me better and would have been way more inclusive and extensive in telling all sides of the story. Almost 90 % of the movie is being told by the murderer. In his own words as he left a manifesto.

Now there is one of the things you have to decide. Is that something you want to see - do you feel you are giving him too much credit and limelight (or the movie of course)? I can't answer that for you - I also can only imagine how some of the relatives feel of those who were murdered. In the end we also get some clips of Trump (obviously someone who was in the Killers mind, like Q and other conspiracy stuff) and we also get a summarization from Uwe Boll himself. Who as always has some things to say - and show. And of course this is as controversial as you'd expect. Since I don't know details, I will not go into his accusations - or how accurate they are. I do wonder however why this is called Part 1 - this can only be a mistake surely? Anyway, Uwe Boll comes back from retirement, whether you like it or not. His heart is in the right place (at least that's how I feel), but his execution (excuse the pun) ... not so much.