BEYOND PUNISHMENT (2015)
World Premiere:Max-Ophüls-Preis Festival 2015
Cinema release: 4. June 2015
Director: Hubertus Siegert
“Since Homer's time, people have worked to control anger and violence. Laws were created, criminal justice was established and prisons were built. For the duration of the punishment, victims and offenders were strictly separated.“
Hubertus Siegert, Director of BEYOND PUNISHMENT
SUMMARY
Three crimes - three punishments - three conflicts
Three men who have killed and three families who are bereaved of a loved-one. In the usual concept of guilt and punishment, that makes three who are punished and three who must forget. We cannot imagine that the two sides get back into contact with each other. The film documents the unthinkable three times: meeting one's opponent of guilt and hate in thoughts, in messages and in real life, in Germany, in Norway and in the USA.
PROTAGONISTS
NORWAY
A teenage love affair in Norway ends in murder when Stian kills his sixteen-year-old girlfriend Ingrid-Elisabeth out of jealousy. Her father Erik can't stand that Stian is allowed to return to his home town - the scene of the crime - on parole just a few years after the crime. He is afraid to meet Stian.
USA
Leola and Lisa live in the Bronx, not far from the supermarket where their at the time sixteen year old son and brother was shot dead. For eleven years now, mother and daughter have been waiting for Sean, back then aged 21 and sentenced to 40 years in prison, to admit to his crime.
GERMANY
Patrick's father Gerold von Braunmühl, a top ranking civil servant in the Foreign Ministry, was killed by the left-wing militant Red Army Faction (RAF) in 1986. Despite a letter of confession left near the scene of the crime, the exact perpetrators remain unknown to this day. Patrick has no opportunity to confront his father's murderers directly. Are there other ways?
JANINE GESKE
The former Wisconsin Supreme Court judge and law professor is an advocate of restorative justice. In 2005, she founded the "Restorative Justice Initiative" for the bi-annual work in prison with victims and offenders: Who was injured and what were the effects of that injury? What was the nature of the injury? And how can this injury be healed?"
STORY
BEYOND PUNISHMENT tells the story of Leola, Lisa and Sean, Erik and Stian, Patrick and Manfred. The protagonists of these three conflicts have not found peace with the violent offenses that changed their lives, neither the victims nor the perpetrators. Even years after the sentence and often even after the time served in prison, both sides are still searching.
Lisa und Leola
Sean
Erik
Stian
Patrick
Manfred
The journey into the inner world of violence and punishment begins in a prison in Wisconsin. Here, in a maximum security facility, where those responsible for violent offenses are normally locked for decades and far away from society something unique takes place regularly: Every six months, 30 inmates meet a large group of crime victims - and they do something that does happen very rarely or never: they talk to each other.
„RESTORATIVE JUSTICE“
Restorative justice is a concept of justice that overcomes the traditional logic of retribution and the philosophy of punishment, focussing on all aspects of the conflict it looks for reconciliation.
The UN resolution "UN Basic Principles on Restorative Justice" describes this as follows: "Any process in which the victim, the offender and other subjects or communities affected by a criminal offence work actively and jointly to resolve and rectify the consequences that have arisen as a result of the offence; usually with the support of an outside professional".
In Germany, restorative justice takes place within the framework of victim-offender mediation (TOA) for four decades by now. Through the professional mediation of an uninvolved third party, offenders and victims are supported in reaching an agreement with each other on compensation for the damage caused by a criminal offence that is accepted by both parties. In the 1980s, there were several private initiatives that carried out offender-victim mediation projects with young offenders. Due to the positive experiences, victim-offender mediation was enshrined in the Juvenile Courts Act in 1990. This was followed in 1994 by a legal regulation in the Criminal Code for the adult sector, and in early 2000 by a provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Worldwide, there are two well known experts who do research in the field of restorative justice and repeatedly demonstrate the enormous social relevance of this practice: Firstly, the film's protagonist Judge Janine Geske (USA) and criminologist Kristel Buntinx (Belgium) not part of the film.
ABOUT PENALTIES
Punishment is a deeply rooted human strategy. There is no society or religion that does without punishment.
Punishment has accompanied humanity since the earliest civilisations.
Originally, punishment was based on the need for compensation for injustice suffered, whether through reparation or revenge.
Punishment has furthermore served a need for purification. Plato already mentions these aspects, stating that people who commit injustice should be punished until they have been put back on the right track: "No one punishes the wrongdoer because he has done wrong - for he cannot undo what has been done - but for the sake of the future, so that neither the offender himself does wrong again nor another who has witnessed his chastisement." In this sense punishment can be a search for social rehabilitation (reform theory) or for deterrence (deterrence theory). Both perspectives are part of today's criminal law.
The reconciliation between the person responsible for the offense and the person affected by the offense is not the focus at all. Only the verdict and his or her sentence take the centre stage, concealing most of what is psychologically of importance for all involved.
REACTIONS TO THE FILM
„Hubertus Siegert establishes connections between the perpetrators and the bereaved, he is far more than just an observer. He draws powerful images, captures oppressive moments of silence and portrays the people involved in three murders who finally want to move on. In the end, the inner lives of perpetrators and victims can be surmised.“
Zitty, Johann Voigt
„Stirring film that questions our idea of guilt and atonement. Gripping!“
TV Movie Digital
„Siegert searches for the emotional states beyond punishment and retribution, observing how the bereaved slowly come to terms with the direct confrontation with the perpetrator. Siegert has opted for the - only correct - path of distancing observation.“
Badische Zeitung
„In one of the most harrowing scenes, Lisa describes how she is torn between hatred and forgiveness. Hate is her demon, it hounds and strangles her, and if Lisa were to forgive her brother's murderer, her soul would finally be at peace. No, this great young woman tells herself, that would be a barter, a cheap economy of forgiveness that would betray her brother.“
DIE ZEIT
FILM AWARDS
BEYOND PUNISHMENT premiered at the 36th Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival, where it received the award for Best Documentary Film 2015. It was also nominated for the German Film Award, Hessian Film Award and honoured with the Metropolis Award of the director's guilde of Germany: Best Director of a documentary in Germany in 2015.
CREDITS
98 min, 1:1.85, DCP 5.1 © S.U.M.O. Film 2015
Screenplay, director, production: Hubertus Siegert
Editing: Anne Fabini
DOP: Marcus Winterbauer, Jenny Lou Ziegel
Sound department: André Zacher
Co-production: Udo Bremer, ZDF/3sat; Christian Popp, DOCDAYS
BEYOND PUNISHMENT (2015)
World Premiere:Max-Ophüls-Preis Festival 2015
Cinema release: 4. June 2015
Director: Hubertus Siegert
“Since Homer's time, people have worked to control anger and violence. Laws were created, criminal justice was established and prisons were built. For the duration of the punishment, victims and offenders were strictly separated.“
Hubertus Siegert, Director of BEYOND PUNISHMENT
SUMMARY
Three crimes - three punishments - three conflicts
Three men who have killed and three families who are bereaved of a loved-one. In the usual concept of guilt and punishment, that makes three who are punished and three who must forget. We cannot imagine that the two sides get back into contact with each other. The film documents the unthinkable three times: meeting one's opponent of guilt and hate in thoughts, in messages and in real life, in Germany, in Norway and in the USA.
PROTAGONISTS
NORWAY
A teenage love affair in Norway ends in murder when Stian kills his sixteen-year-old girlfriend Ingrid-Elisabeth out of jealousy. Her father Erik can't stand that Stian is allowed to return to his home town - the scene of the crime - on parole just a few years after the crime. He is afraid to meet Stian.
USA
Leola and Lisa live in the Bronx, not far from the supermarket where their at the time sixteen year old son and brother was shot dead. For eleven years now, mother and daughter have been waiting for Sean, back then aged 21 and sentenced to 40 years in prison, to admit to his crime.
GERMANY
Patrick's father Gerold von Braunmühl, a top ranking civil servant in the Foreign Ministry, was killed by the left-wing militant Red Army Faction (RAF) in 1986. Despite a letter of confession left near the scene of the crime, the exact perpetrators remain unknown to this day. Patrick has no opportunity to confront his father's murderers directly. Are there other ways?
JANINE GESKE
The former Wisconsin Supreme Court judge and law professor is an advocate of restorative justice. In 2005, she founded the "Restorative Justice Initiative" for the bi-annual work in prison with victims and offenders: Who was injured and what were the effects of that injury? What was the nature of the injury? And how can this injury be healed?"
STORY
BEYOND PUNISHMENT tells the story of Leola, Lisa and Sean, Erik and Stian, Patrick and Manfred. The protagonists of these three conflicts have not found peace with the violent offenses that changed their lives, neither the victims nor the perpetrators. Even years after the sentence and often even after the time served in prison, both sides are still searching.
Lisa und Leola
Sean
Erik
Stian
Patrick
Manfred
The journey into the inner world of violence and punishment begins in a prison in Wisconsin. Here, in a maximum security facility, where those responsible for violent offenses are normally locked for decades and far away from society something unique takes place regularly: Every six months, 30 inmates meet a large group of crime victims - and they do something that does happen very rarely or never: they talk to each other.
„RESTORATIVE JUSTICE“
Restorative justice is a concept of justice that overcomes the traditional logic of retribution and the philosophy of punishment, focussing on all aspects of the conflict it looks for reconciliation.
The UN resolution "UN Basic Principles on Restorative Justice" describes this as follows: "Any process in which the victim, the offender and other subjects or communities affected by a criminal offence work actively and jointly to resolve and rectify the consequences that have arisen as a result of the offence; usually with the support of an outside professional".
In Germany, restorative justice takes place within the framework of victim-offender mediation (TOA) for four decades by now. Through the professional mediation of an uninvolved third party, offenders and victims are supported in reaching an agreement with each other on compensation for the damage caused by a criminal offence that is accepted by both parties. In the 1980s, there were several private initiatives that carried out offender-victim mediation projects with young offenders. Due to the positive experiences, victim-offender mediation was enshrined in the Juvenile Courts Act in 1990. This was followed in 1994 by a legal regulation in the Criminal Code for the adult sector, and in early 2000 by a provision in the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Worldwide, there are two well known experts who do research in the field of restorative justice and repeatedly demonstrate the enormous social relevance of this practice: Firstly, the film's protagonist Judge Janine Geske (USA) and criminologist Kristel Buntinx (Belgium) not part of the film.
ABOUT PENALTIES
Punishment is a deeply rooted human strategy. There is no society or religion that does without punishment.
Punishment has accompanied humanity since the earliest civilisations.
Originally, punishment was based on the need for compensation for injustice suffered, whether through reparation or revenge.
Punishment has furthermore served a need for purification. Plato already mentions these aspects, stating that people who commit injustice should be punished until they have been put back on the right track: "No one punishes the wrongdoer because he has done wrong - for he cannot undo what has been done - but for the sake of the future, so that neither the offender himself does wrong again nor another who has witnessed his chastisement." In this sense punishment can be a search for social rehabilitation (reform theory) or for deterrence (deterrence theory). Both perspectives are part of today's criminal law.
The reconciliation between the person responsible for the offense and the person affected by the offense is not the focus at all. Only the verdict and his or her sentence take the centre stage, concealing most of what is psychologically of importance for all involved.
REACTIONS TO THE FILM
„Hubertus Siegert establishes connections between the perpetrators and the bereaved, he is far more than just an observer. He draws powerful images, captures oppressive moments of silence and portrays the people involved in three murders who finally want to move on. In the end, the inner lives of perpetrators and victims can be surmised.“
Zitty, Johann Voigt
„Stirring film that questions our idea of guilt and atonement. Gripping!“
TV Movie Digital
„Siegert searches for the emotional states beyond punishment and retribution, observing how the bereaved slowly come to terms with the direct confrontation with the perpetrator. Siegert has opted for the - only correct - path of distancing observation.“
Badische Zeitung
„In one of the most harrowing scenes, Lisa describes how she is torn between hatred and forgiveness. Hate is her demon, it hounds and strangles her, and if Lisa were to forgive her brother's murderer, her soul would finally be at peace. No, this great young woman tells herself, that would be a barter, a cheap economy of forgiveness that would betray her brother.“
DIE ZEIT
FILM AWARDS
BEYOND PUNISHMENT premiered at the 36th Max Ophüls Preis Film Festival, where it received the award for Best Documentary Film 2015. It was also nominated for the German Film Award, Hessian Film Award and honoured with the Metropolis Award of the director's guilde of Germany: Best Director of a documentary in Germany in 2015.
CREDITS
98 min, 1:1.85, DCP 5.1 © S.U.M.O. Film 2015
Screenplay, director, production: Hubertus Siegert
Editing: Anne Fabini
DOP: Marcus Winterbauer, Jenny Lou Ziegel
Sound department: André Zacher
Co-production: Udo Bremer, ZDF/3sat; Christian Popp, DOCDAYS
S.U.M.O. FILM
Marienstraße 27
D-10117 Berlin
office [at] sumofilm.de
SPICE FILM
Marienstraße 27
D-10117 Berlin
office [at] spicefilm.de
S.U.M.O. FILM
Marienstraße 27
D-10117 Berlin
office [at] sumofilm.de
SPICE FILM
Marienstraße 27
D-10117 Berlin
office [at] spicefilm.de