The veteran filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim who is also Germany’s most famous gay activist and has made over 150 short and feature films to date. His latest movie, currently playing the Film Festival  circuit,  is a thriller loosely adapted  on one of the most notorious gay serial killers whose story played out in the German media for several months when it broke a few years ago.

von Praunheim tells his story flashing back and forth in time , but he starts several years before the murders when Lars (Bozider Kocevski) is a bartender in small town gay bar and living at home with his wealthy elderly grandmother.  When he first locks eyes with Roland (Heiner Bomhard) one night in the Bar it is love at first sight, so much so when Roland  tells him he is going to Berlin to pursue his career as a performer, Lars immediately says he’ll join him.

They buy an apartment together  with money we later discover that Lara had stolen from his grandmother who he  helped have an early death after she mentioned she was cutting him out of her will. 

For the next six years the two men lived a comfortable live in the city. They enjoyed an open relationship which Lars had reluctantly agreed too even though he was not that that keen on. He had become a Nurse meanwhile but had now given that up to train as a teacher.

One day out cruising for sex Lars discovered liquid ecstasy for the first time  which gave him a sexual high but easily could be fatal when taken in excess or  mixed with alcohol . The knowledge turned this ordinary  man with a rather mundane life into a determined killer of men that innocently crossed his path.

In a short space of time he killed three men, but a further two escaped and their evidence would later be enough to get Lars sentenced to life imprisonment.

The motive  for the murders was never crystal clear and   you are essentially left wondering why this quiet and rather nondescript man would do such dastardly deeds.  Lars himself tried in vain at the Trial to portray the deaths as a mistake  The  judge however declared that greed was in the foreground but he thought that Lars also wanted to feel the total power over others and delight in it.

It’s a taut tight thriller that in von Praunheim’s  experienced hands avoids any sensationalising  of the crimes but at the same time also  has you completely engaged to the very last frame.