“Peter K. – Alone against the State”: the madman of Biel in question

In Switzerland, it is not easy to make films regarding key events. As proof, the (too?) late film dedicated last year to the “king of escape” Walter Stürm and the impossibility of shooting one on the Günther Tschanun affair of 1986 or on the Zug massacre of 2001 Delayed for two years due to covid, the film by Laurent Wyss which returns to the case of the “madman of Bienne” is therefore a feat. It must be said that this case did not have as many victims likely to obstruct; and that the director, himself from Biel, began his personal investigation from the first days, in September 2010. All of this led him to dare to tell a story from the point of view of the one whom the Blick described as a “raving mad pensioner” (“Amok-Renter“) before part of the population took his side during his run.