code flow - events
20 October - 2 December 2007
at Kunsthalle Winterthur, Winterthur
Accompanying program of lectures, screenings and discussions specially curated by Dimitrina Sevova
Program Details
Saturday, 3 November, 16h (4 pm)
Screening and Discussion: Faces of Evil / Gesichter des Bösen (documentary movie, Davide Tosco, 2006, 54 min, in German language)
Davide Tosco
Faces of Evil, film still
Saturday, 3 November, 16h (4 pm)
Screening and Discussion: Faces of Evil / Gesichter des Bösen (documentary movie, Davide Tosco, 2006, 54 min, in German language)
Documentary movie, France / Italy 2006, premiered on 19 November 2006 on Arte television
Director: Davide Tosco
Length: 54 min
In 1943 the mentally retarded employee of a laundry is accused of 51 murders. The film “Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam” (The Devil Strikes at Night) by Robert Siodmak (1956) makes him known as the "greatest serial killer" in the history of Germany. 50 years later the documentation "Faces of Evil" sheds light on the actual story of this man whose true crime was to have the "typical face of a criminal". How did the notion of the typical "criminal face" arise? How far can one go in judging people solely by their appearance?
Starting with the fate of Bruno Lüdke, the documentation looks at theories and techniques supposed to detect criminal predispositions in the human body: physiognomics and the study of the skull, known as phrenology, criminal photography and criminal anthropology - all the way to modern genetics. It becomes clear that the dream of an absolutely safe society of which from the outset, all dangerous elements are expunged, can lead to totalitarian circumstances just like the ones Bruno Lüdke became a victim of.
Davide Tosco
Faces of Evil, film still
The accompanying program of events is organized with the support of Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Zug, and the Ernst und Olga Gubler-Hablützel Stiftung, Zürich.