To celebrate the 20th edition of the Shockproof Film Festival we have got a very special and unique birthday treat for you. It is our privilege to present Angst on the big screen! The very rarely seen and for a long time criminally overlooked cinematic masterpiece directed in 1983 by Gerald Kargl is loosely based on the real-life murderous rampage of Werner Kniesek. The film follows a psychopath who leaves the prison gates with one obsessive thought: to kill. But don’t expect a run-of-the-mill genre entertainment. On the contrary, Angst is an immersive cinephile experience of the highest order that will swallow you up like a black hole. It perceives reality through the eyes of the killer and reveals his twisted inner world through his voice-over monologue. It does not justify the bestial acts in any way, but merely registers them clinically in their bloody magnificence and mundane banality. The seemingly frenzied yet meticulous Zbigniew Rybczynski‘s camerawork and excruciating but hypnotising long takes offer a glimpse into a savage world that is rarely displayed with such appreciation for the cinematic medium. The intensity of the violence is matched by Klaus Schulze’s nerve-shredding soundtrack that claws its way under your skin and exacerbates the relentless nature of the on-screen carnage. Erwin Leder’s performance in the central role is both mesmerizing and terrifying at the same time, bordering in its commitment with self-destruction. Don’t miss this genuinely disturbing examination of human nature at its worst. This is as close as you’re likely to get to a real killer and survive.
