With his film “Individual Offenders” about the attack on Munich’s Olympia shopping center, director Julian Vogel turns to the families of the victims. To this day, they are fighting to have the attack classified as an ideologically motivated act.
It begins with a nightly drive through the north of Munich, you can see wet streets through the window, you can hear the windshield wipers pushing raindrops aside. It takes a while before someone starts speaking. The opening sequence of the documentary film “Individual Offenders Part 1: Munich” sets the tone for the entire 84 minutes. Director Julian Vogel lets the images work by avoiding hectic cuts – everything is very calm, very solemn. And Vogel lets the language appear as if he is orienting himself towards William Shakespeare and his Richard II: “Where words are rare, they have weight.” There is a lot of silence in this film, a lot of speechlessness.