When it comes to a lot of money, the mafia is not far. This also applies to sports betting. The manipulation of football matches is a lucrative business for organized crime. And one in which distrust, lies, treachery and violence are common as in “At Close Range”.
The thriller, in which Philipp Kadelbach directed, shows the first this Wednesday (20.15 pm). It is not a film for cozy evenings on the couch. But he plays too much in desolate betting shops. And it is also too often slammed so hard that his nose is broken.
The film ends with a scene in which he starts. But in the beginning it is not totally visible: As four men are in the forest. “For the family,” says one, and extends further a weapon. One of the two younger ones to shoot the Fourth. What happens next remains unclear. But viewers are tuned to a thriller in which it is brutal to the point and again blood flows, even if there is not every time dead.
At the heart of the story Klaus Roth is a policeman who can infiltrate undercover in the Serbian Wettmafia. Tom Schilling ( “Generation War”, “Who Am I – No System Is Safe”) is an ideal candidate for this role. “I like him like that Klaus Roth,” Schilling said in an interview with ARD. “Among colleagues, he is considered difficult. He has a very strong sense of justice, which he sometimes tends to overreact. “
Schilling (34) makes a sensitive, rather reserved young as swaggering police at least as credible as Edin Hasanovic young Serbs Luka. The two are on opposite sides, but they get closer, and in a sense, they may be even.
“In Luka I prepared so intense as to not matter before,” said the 23 has -year Hasanovic, the Bosnian roots and was awarded in February the Golden camera as best young actor. “For the first time in my career I was able to say in so strongly the role.” In text and action he had just a say as mask, costume and props. “I have never myself on the next day of shooting so happy as in this film.”
In another life Klaus and Luka would become best friends. But an undercover agent and a member of a Serbian clan who does not shrink from extortion, betting fraud and murder, but do not have the best conditions. Frank Dudek (Jens Albinus), Roth nosed boss wants to use the young policemen especially, in order to access Aco Goric (Lazar Ristovski), Lukas uncle and godfather of the clan.
And it runs at first everything smooth. The family seems to trust Klaus Roth, Luka makes him the godfather of his newborn son. When christening Klaus holds a solemn speech in Serbian. But then escalated a conflict between Serbian and Turkish betting fraudsters. And solemn speeches soon count nothing. The business comes first, especially the one in which in betting shops the big money is made.
Everything just fiction? Not quite. Benjamin Best, journalist and expert on betting fraud in sport and author of the book “Football purchased”, advised director Philipp Kadelbach. And he is also responsible for the documentation that is sent right after “At Close Range”. Kadelbach has also spent according to own data for research purposes for many hours in Berlin betting offices and spoke among others with LKA officials and undercover agents.
This has paid off handsomely. “From a short distance,” tells his story unsightly largely credible. A bit overused stereotype of the party animals, liquor cup ends Serbs like to let fly the fists, the family honor is everything and a human life affects nothing. But it is ultimately a thriller, as painted here and there with coarse brush. At the end in blood red.
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