In the Name of the People

Directed by Ottokar Runze

In this German film, inmates guilty of a prison murder are put on trial before a court consisting of other inmates. The trial is given the full formal treatment it might receive in a civilian setting. The key point in this film is that these are the actual murderers admitting their actual crimes before a judges' panel consisting of their peers: actual prisoners at the same institution. Having no force of law, the trial proceeds without reaching a conclusion. That is something the viewer is asked to provide. This movie won a Silver Bear from the 1974 Berlin Film Festival.