Peter Lorre

The role of the child murderer in Fritz Lang's legendary film "M" instantly made the Jewish actor Peter Lorre world-famous, but at the same time became his undoing. With his unmistakable look, he remains the "bad guy", even in his only own film "Der Verlorene", in which he portraits a murderer once again.

Evelyn Schels' film "Peter Lorre - Behind the Mask of Evil" tells the story of his complex personality, explores his contradictions and reveals his inner demons, which characterize his unique acting. Lorre experienced the great upheavals of the 20th century, fled from Hitler's anti-Semitism to America and built a new life for himself as an exile in Hollywood. The Austro-Hungarian immigrant acts in more than 80 films, including classics such as "Casablanca" and "The Maltese Falcon". He filmed with John Huston, worked with Humphrey Bogart and was friends with other exiles such as Billy Wilder, Josef von Sternberg and Fritz Lang. But he remained an outsider.

Accompanied by the voices of his biographer Stephen D. Youngkin, the directors Volker Schlöndorff and Christian Petzold, the film historian Alexander Horwath and the writer Robert Schindel, the film creates a multifaceted picture of this tragic hero with the face of a child, a masters of the ambiguous act. A life between glamor, drugs and decline.

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