Tattoo (2002)

Country of Origin: Germany / France
Year of Production: 2002
Running Times: 108 mins
Length: 2972 metres
Format: colour 35mm
Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound: Dolby Digital

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: B.A. Produktion / Lounge Entertainment GmbH / Studio Canal
Executive Producer: Verena Herfurth
Producers: Jan Hinter, Roman Kuhn
Production Manager: Jutta Bürsgens

SCRIPT
Script: Robert Schwentke

DIRECTION
Director: Robert Schwentke
Assistant Director: Frank Scharl
2nd Assistant Director: Katja Bernet

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Jan Fehse
Camera: Arriflex 535 B (with 3-perf movement)

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Peter Przygodda
Post Production Manager: Andreas Rothenaicher

MUSIC
Music: Martin Todsharow

SOUND
Sound Designer: André Bendocchi-Alves
Production Sound Mixer: Tom Weber
Sound Re-Recording Mixer: Martin Steyer
Supervising Sound Editor: André Bendocchi-Alves
Sound Editors: Joao Costa Pinto, Claudia Enzmann, Guido Zettier
Dialogue Editor: Claudia Enzmann
Foley Recordist: Philipp Sellier
Sound Recording Facilities: Ruhr Sound Studios

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Costume Designer: Peri de Bragança

SPECIAL MAKE UP EFFECTS
Special Make Up Effects: Henrik Scheib
Special Effects Prosthetics: Georg Korpas
Tattoos and Bodypainting: Alexander Boyko

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects Supervisor (Berlin): Karl-Heinz Bochnig
Special Effects Supervisor (Cologne): Wolf Schiebel
Special Effects Technicians: Christoph von Lengerke, Endres Löber, Niklas Voigt
Special Effects Technician (Rain Effects): Volker Lorig

VISUAL EFFECTS
Title Designer: Lutz Lemke

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Josef Sanktjohanser
Set Construction: Onkel Tuca FilmDecor
Construction Manager: Wolfgang Gosberg
Construction Coordinator: Gregor Hees
Carpenters: Lorenzo Sartor, Stephan Rieck, Udo Skirke
Painters: Andrea Gulke, Britta Sassmannshausen, Nane Stegat, Silke Putz
Chief Sculptor: Herbert Hees

MISCELLANEOUS
Driver: Werner Ahrendt

LOCATIONS
Locations: Berlin, Germany; Cologne, North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany

STUNTS
Stunt Coordinator: Michael Mohr
Assistant Stunt Coordinator: Marc Sieger
Stunts: Stuntteam Steinmeier / Mohr, Andreas Cremer, Andreas Seifert, Michael Bittinger, Norbert Heisterkamp, Peter Bartels

CASTING
Casting: Anja Dihrberg

CAST
Ilknur Bahadir (Meltem)
Joe Bausch (Günzel)
Monika Bleibtreu (Roth)
Nadeshda Brennicke (Maya Kroner)
Fatih Cevikkollu (Dix)
August Diehl (Marc Schrader)
Johan Leysen (Frank Schoubya)
Ingo Naujoks (Stefan Kreiner)
Florian Panzner (Poscher)
Christian Redl (Minks)
Jasmin Schwiers (Marie Minks)
Gustav-Peter Wöhler (Scheck)

PLOT SUMMARY

Berlin detectives August Diehl and Christian Redl are pursuing the perpetrator of a series of brutal ritualistic murders. The killer is hunting down victims who have been tattooed by a legendary Japanese artist and is removing their painted skins to collect the works of art they are covered in.

A bleak, stylish serial killer offering from Robert Schwentke with plenty of original twists and turns. Deservedly a huge hit in its native Germany, Tattoo is a grisly, compelling policier that isn't afraid to acknowledge its influences, chiefly David Fincher's Se7en (1995) which it perhaps occasionally tries to emulate a little too closely. But every time you think that you've guessed what's coming because of its similarity to Fincher's film, Tattoo catches you off guard with some unexpected twists. The identity of the killer isn't terribly hard to work out, but the fate of some of the lead characters is unexpected and the final shot adds a chilling wrinkle to the well worn story. Performances throughout are outstanding, particularly from August Diehl (who went straight from this to Anatomie 2 (2003)) as the immature rookie forced to grow up very quickly as the horrors threaten to overwhelm him, German TV veteran Christian Redl as the depressed, haunted Minks and another TV graduate, Nadeshda Brennicke as the woman with more secrets than you can shake a stick at.

Germany
Theatrical Distributor: Tobis StudioCanal
DVD Distributor: ufa Home Entertainment

Italy
Theatrical Distributor: Keyfilms Roma

Argentina
Rating: 16

Germany
Rating: 16

Italy
Rating: VM14

2002
German Camera Award, Germany
Spielfilm (Jan Fehse) - nominated

2003
Fantasporto, Portugal
International Fantasy Film Award Best Film (Robert Schwentke) - nominated

Film+, Germany
Editing Award (Peter Przygodda) - nominated

2002
April
4: Germany – theatrical release
5: Austria – theatrical release

September
27: South Korea – theatrical release; Sweden – shown at the Fantastisk Filmfestival Lund

November
3: Spain – shown at the Semana de Cine Fantástico y de Terror de San Sebastián
15: USA – shown at the AFI Film Festival

2003
January
3: Italy – theatrical release

February
25: Portugal – shown at the Fantasporto Film Festival

March
12: Argentina – shown at the Mar del Plata Film Festival

April
7: Germany - DVD release (ufa Home Entertainment)

July
4: USA – shown at the New York City, New York

August
23: UK – shown at Frightfest 2003, London

Save Your Skin...

MAGAZINES

epd Film vol.19 no.4 (1 April 2002) pp.40-41 (Germany)
review (Robert Schwentke auf den Spuren großer Vorbilder by Rudolf Worschech)

film dienst vol.55 no.7 (26 March 2002) p.30 (Germany)
review (by Ulrich Kriest)

KEYWORDS

flaying, serial killers, tattoos

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008