Feature Denis Moschitto

"It was important to us to be as real as possible."

Daniel Rakete Siegel, director & screenwriter
Denis Moschitto, director, screenwriter & actor

The two two Cologne-based directors Daniel Rakete Siegel (IM KNAST) and Denis Moschitto (CHIKO) have made a gangster thriller. SCHOCK is a gritty, tough, thrilling genre film, the likes of which are rarely seen in German cinemas.

In SCHOCK, Moschitto, who also co-wrote the screenplay, plays a doctor who looks after people who are criminals and wanted. For 50,000 euros, he has to provide a leukaemia patient with the necessary antibodies and soon comes up against organised crime.

The gangster thriller is about deadlines and ultimatums, last resorts and the growing deadly threat. Moschitto's intense acting and the performances of the fantastic cast, which includes Anke Engelke, Fahri Yardım and Aenne Schwarz, make SCHOCK a gloomily shimmering pearl of German genre cinema.

Thematically and aesthetically, the thriller confidently places itself in the same league as genre classics such as SCARFACE (1932, Howard Hawks), SCARFACE (1982, Brian de Palma), THE HEAT (Michael Mann), GLORIA (John Cassavetes), GHOST DOG (Jim Jarmusch), DRIVE (Nicolas Winding Refn) and BREATHLESS (Jean-Luc Godard).

In the FFCGN interview, the two likeable cinema rebels Siegel and Moschitto talk to us about how they realised this extraordinary film and what their love of collective filmmaking and their home city have to do with it.