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The Golden Glove (Der Goldene Handschuh)

The Golden Glove (Der Goldene Handschuh)

Movie · 2019 · 15 people

The Golden Glove is a 2019 German-French co-production that Fatih Akın wrote and directed. A horror drama based on Heinz Strunk's 2016 novel of the same name, it paints a portrait of Fritz Honka, a real serial killer from Hamburg's Kiez nightlife district. It premiered on 9 February 2019 in the main competition of the Berlin International Film Festival, for the Golden Bear, and reached Turkish cinemas on 12 April. It was the first Akin film rated 18 in Germany.

The story unfolds in 1970s Hamburg around a pub called the Golden Glove, in the red-light area near the Reeperbahn. Honka, played by Jonas Dassler, is a disfigured man given over to drink who seems quiet and ordinary. Yet he picks his victims from the pub's regulars, brings them up to his attic flat and keeps their remains there. The film covers the four women killed between 1970 and 1975. A regular job pulls Honka away for a while, but old habits return. Margarethe Tiesel and Hark Bohm also appear.

After the Berlin screening, notices were mostly negative: Peter Bradshaw gave two stars out of five, and IndieWire's David Ehrlich graded it D and found it repellent. A review published in Turkey rated it very good.

DirectorFatih Akın

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Adam Bousdoukos Adam Bousdoukos Actor · 52 years old Lefteris Philipp Baltus Philipp Baltus Actor · born 1978 Zuhälter Jonas Dassler Margarethe Tiesel Katja Studt Marc Hosemann Martina Eitner-Acheampong Victoria Trauttmansdorff Uwe Rohde Hark Bohm Heinz Strunk Tristan Göbel Tom Hoßbach Jessica Kosmalla Simon Goerts

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Through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

Fatih Akin heads into the darkest, most divisive corner of his work here. Adapted from Heinz Strunk's novel, the film portrays the real serial killer Fritz Honka in 1970s Hamburg, around a pub called the Golden Glove. The setting and atmosphere make that cramped, stifling world almost tangible, and Jonas Dassler's transformation into the disfigured, hard-drinking Honka is physically striking. The trouble is that the film struggles to find a point of view that makes sense of all this squalor; the victims stay less characters than parts of a repeating cycle of violence. I can see why the Berlin reviews were mostly negative, yet it would be unfair to wave away the director's willingness to take a risk.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

Don't mistake this for a family film. Rated 18 in Germany, it tells of a real serial killer murdering women. The subject is heavy, the setting is grim and at times it is deeply disturbing. Not for children, not for teenagers, and I wouldn't recommend it even to adults with a weak stomach. Only for grown-ups who knowingly choose hard-edged dramas like this.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

What stayed with me was less the killer than the world around him. 1970s Hamburg, the red-light area near the Reeperbahn, a pub there: Honka choosing his victims from among its regulars raises the question of who was seen and who went unseen at the time. Because the story is based on real events, that question weighs even more; the four women killed between 1970 and 1975 were real people, not a statistic. Yet instead of deepening that social backdrop, the film mostly lingers on the surface of squalor. Viewers hoping for a portrait of a city and an era may come away short-changed.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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