The Tenderness of wolves = Die Zartlichkeit der Wolfe

Based on the life and crimes of Felix Haarmann, the German child murderer who’s killing spree in Dusseldorf during the depression was also the subject of Fritz Lang’s M (1931), and a later version directed by Joseph Losey (1951). Not surprising then that lead actor Kurt Raab, (who also wrote the screenplay and served as art director) pays homage to Peter Lorre in his portrayal of the paedophilic child murderer and sometimes police informer. Produced by Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s production company, (he also makes a brief appearence) ‘The Tenderness of Wolves’, although directed by Ulli Lommel, feels and looks much more like a Fassbinder film and in fact was made during an extended break from “Effie Briest” (1974), which also features Kurt Raab. Ulli Lommel updates the film to post World War Two (mainly due to budget restrictions), and presents the killer as a resourceful, angst- ridden man, who after vampirising the boys would sell their dismembered bodies and clothes on the black market. It’s in Haarmann’s many social connections and the complicity of his friends and police (the tender wolves of the title), that the film draws some of it’s more darker moments. Ultimately, a critique about the society that this monster is allowed to flourish in, ‘The Tenderness of Wolves’ is a disturbing and unsettling experience. In German with English subtitles.