INTO THE ABYSS

Death row pastor, Lopez, even brakes for squirrels. He knows that every life is precious. Whether it be that of the mother who was shot as she was baking cookies by two deranged youths in a spontaneous robbery or those of the presumed perpetrators who, after 10 years of imprisonment, will soon be lethally injected by the state of Texas. Why does God allow capital punishment? Lopez does not know. He can only weep about it. With simple, clear questions, Herzog interviews the perpetrators, their family members and government representatives and the answers he receives give a clearer picture than we would get from a police video’s roaming camera. His reconstruction of the tragedy of an insane and bloody crime and an equally bloody state vendetta fluctuates cathartically between sympathy and antipathy, between terror and emotion. A (perfectly timed) story about death - and also about love, loss and betrayal. Marcus Morlinghaus

After the screening, Wenzel Michalski, direktor von Human Rights Watch Germany, will be present for a discussion.