Cut off: Everything is correct at the autopsy in the film
"Cut off" can be seen in the German cinemas from October 11th. Legal physician Paul Herzfeld (Moritz Bleibtreu) finds in an autopsy in the head of a corpse a note with the mobile number of his daughter. Following a trail of corpses, he is forced to ask the young cartoonist Linda (Jasna Fritzi Bauer) for help. Because the next clue can be found on the island of Heligoland, which was cut off from the outside world by a storm. Together with the caretaker Ender (Fahri Yard? M) Linda makes the first autopsy of her life. But not only this is disturbing.
The hijacker and killer also seems to be on the island - and at the same time to keep Herzfeld on the mainland in check. The successful book was created in 2012 from the symbiosis of bestselling author Sebastian Fitzek (46) and the director of the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Berlin Charité, Michael Tsokos (51). In an interview with the news agency spot on news, the two authors confirm how close the film by director Christian Alvart (44) is to their ideas and the bloody reality.
What is the feeling of seeing the story that you thought up on the big screen?
Fitzek: When a book is made into a movie, that's great anyway. In addition, director Christian Alvart has managed to bring the images that we had in mind when writing on the screen. I did not think that would be possible. "Cut off" has become a great movie, without restrictions.
Lars Eidinger plays in "Cut Off" a sadistic sex offender. How close does he get to what you have painted for your book?
Tsokos: He is even nastier than in the book. Just by a smile he brings us viewers to hate him. This is really great acting!
The film also has otherwise a high-profile cast. Before the film project, did you think about who could play your characters in an adaptation and how satisfied are you with the result?
Tsokos: When I heard that Moritz Bleibtreu was playing the Rechtsarzt Herzfeld, I was thrilled. That's me and I could imagine that Moritz would do well. But he is even better, for me he has surpassed himself here as an actor again. Since every blink of an eye.
Fitzek: Jasna Fritzi Bauer also has an extremely difficult role. How she manages to portray the turmoil in which her character Linda finds herself believable and so moving is quite a big movie. And it is thanks to Fahri Yardim's incredible acting that you can handle the very authentic pictures. A wonderful artist.
Comic book artist Linda is supposed to autopsy a corpse in the story using instructions over the phone. How close to reality are the autopsy scenes in the movie - and could a layman actually do an autopsy if only instructed by telephone?
Tsokos: Yes, that works. It was one of our concerns to present an autopsy as authentic as possible. When Sebastian said when plotting, we get the best out, if we take a layman, that was just the idea. Any other non-expert could do that under my guidance. We would start exactly as in the movie from the outside, in which the body are first pulled out of things and then we move further.
People are dying very brutally in history. How hard is it to empathize as a writer in a murderer?
Fitzek: As an author you have to be a sissy, that is, authors are in most cases very empathic. Just because they have to empathize with other people, otherwise the story would not be credible for you as a reader. To be honest, I am often asked how I manage to put myself in a woman's position, as a murderer.
How does it change you to deal so intensely with death and murder as you do?
Tsokos: I have to deal with death daily. As a result, I'm not scared, like many other people. Otherwise it is true that we have excluded death from our society. It is not the same as in the old days that the grandmother dies with the family. But dying is part of life.
You can also see yourself in the film for a short time. How did that happen?
Fitzek: Director Christian Alvart proposed that. Kindly, he wrote us two roles that we could portray as non-actors quite well: Michael holds a lecture as a professor, which he does in his real life, and I play the lawyer of Herzfeld and have only one sentence to say. That's a good thing.
Is there a new collaboration between you soon?
Tsokos: We definitely do not want to rule that out.But nothing concrete is planned yet.
Mr. Fitzek, with "The Inmate" will be published in October, a new book from you. What can readers be happy about?
Fitzek: I hope for an exciting book. A convicted child murderer sits in a psychiatric prison clinic and refuses to disclose details of the murder of little Max. The father of the boy sees it as the only way to obtain certainty about the fate of his son, to be sent to the semblance of psychiatry. In order to be as close as possible to Max's killer, he has to become an inmate himself.
Mr. Tsokos, how close are your true crime thrillers to what you experience as a forensic doctor?
Tsokos: The reality is harder than any story an author can think up. I have to leave out a lot of what I see and experience on a daily basis. Otherwise it would be too hard for the readers.
On TV, there will be stories of you soon again. What is planned here?
Tsokos: From me will be aired in November on Sat.1 "decomposed", with Tim Bergmann in the lead role. He plays dr. Abel, a forensic physician who tries to make the connection between two cases: In Eastern Europe, two corpses that have been destroyed beyond recognition are found and in Berlin a young waitress is kidnapped by a psychopath. And in February, "ZDF Schreie", the fictional adaptation of my book "Germany abuses its children", will be on ZDF.
Fitzek: On Sat.1, a movie will be aired in the autumn after a book by me: "Amokspiel". It's about a hostage drama in a radio station. On running program, a psychopath calls people indiscriminately. If they report on the phone with a certain slogan, a hostage is released. If not, one will be shot. And even in autumn comes on RTL "Passenger 23". It's about a father whose wife and child disappear without a trace on a cruise ship. When he gets an indication after years what could have happened to his loved ones, he goes after the mystery of their disappearance.
