The Golden Glove

The Golden Glove is a 2019 internationally co-produced horror drama film directed by Fatih Akin. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. The film is an adaptation of Heinz Strunk's eponymous novel and tells the story of the German serial killer Fritz Honka who murdered four women between 1970 and 1975 and hid their body parts in his apartment. The Golden Glove is named after the pub in the red-light district of Hamburg where the disfigured alcoholic Honka met his victims. The Golden Glove is the first film by Fatih Akin to receive an 18 rating in Germany. Plot In 1970, alcoholic night watchman Fritz Honka murders Gertraud Bräuer, a prostitute, in his squalid Hamburg apartment. He carves up the body, getting rid of some parts by throwing them away in a suitcase, while the rest are kept in an improvised locker in his wall. The police find the suitcase but cannot identify the culprit. In 1974, Fritz sees schoolgirl Petra Schulz hanging out with her classmate, Willi. Despite their short encounter, Petra becomes a recurrent protagonist of Fritz's sexual fantasies. Fritz spends nearly all his free time at The Golden Glove pub, often soliciting prostitutes that reject him in disgust. One night Fritz brings home Gerda Voss, a vagrant, who is allowed to pass the night conditional on having sex with him. The next day however, Fritz allows her to stay in exchange for sex and housework, as well as a signed contract of being introduced to her attractive daughter, Rosi. After having lunch with Fritz's recently divorced brother Siggi, Fritz and Gerda go to the pub to meet Rosi. Gerda finally confesses that Rosi and her are completely estranged and that she will not be coming. Outraged, Fritz shatters his glass and begins bleeding. While he is washing himself in the bathroom, an evangelist offers Gerda rehabilitation, which she gladly accepts. With Gerda gone, Fritz approaches three alcoholic women: Inge, Herta, and Anna. As a fight breaks out at the pub, they tag along with him, although Herta passes out on the street and is left lying there. Upon arrival, Fritz asks the women to perform oral sex on each other. While Anna is too drunk to care, Inge adamantly refuses and Fritz beats her up, but she manages to escape. To vent out his frustration, Fritz kills Anna by smashing her head against a table. Her body is also quartered and put in the locker.