After being stopped by the state prosecutor Wenk in Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, 1922), the arch villain returns in the second instalment of the series, where Fritz Lang once again depicts the dissolution of the German society falling prey to the schemes of a merciless criminal, who uses the power of hypnosis to bend the mind of his helpless victims to his will.
Seen by some as an allegorical portrayal of the rise of National Socialism, the film was banned in Hitler's Germany. Soon after, Lang emigrated, first to France, then to the USA, where he pursued his career of a successful filmmaker. The third part of the Mabuse series, The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse), was also Lang's last, made after his return to Germany.
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse is being presented at this year's edition of the Grossmann Festival for a good reason. It is not only a unique thriller, bordering on dark fantasy, with its main character being an evil mastermind, but also an influential classical work by the acclaimed director, which makes it a very welcome addition to the program of our festival, dedicated to the genre cinema. The rare occasion of being able to view The Testament of Dr. Mabuse on the big screen is by itself a cause for celebration, but there is more to it. From its very beginning, the Grossmann Festival is linked, in name and its spirit, to the legacy of Dr. Karol Grossmann, the pioneer of Slovenian cinema, who made his first film, Dismissal from Mass in Ljutomer, in 1905, 120 years ago. And it was ten years later, in 1915, during WW1, that Dr. Grossmann and Fritz Lang met, here in Ljutomer. In fact, the young Fritz Lang, being a non-commissioned officer in the army of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy at the time, had been staying for several months in the home of Dr. Grossmann. We are very thankful to our partner, the Goethe-Institut Ljubljana, for making this presentation of The Testament of dr. Mabuse possible, thus marking the two entwined anniversaries we are celebrating this year.
