Based on the best-selling novel by Nobel-laureate Heinrich Böll, this drama is a passionate indictment of Catholicism. Hans Schnier (Helmut Griem) has earned his living as a clown, though he is in fact a very covert sort of social critic. After enduring a difficult childhood in Bonn during the Second World War, including his mother's fanatic Nazism, he is appalled to discover many of the people he knows and loves swept deeply into involvement in the Catholic Church.

Genres

Cast

Helmut Griem

Hans Schnier

Hanna Schygulla

Marie

Eva Maria Meineke

The Mother

Hans Christian Blech

Derkum

Jan Niklas

Leo, Hans’ Bruder

Helga Anders

Sabine

Rainer Basedow

Zohnerer, Schniers Agent

Claudia Butenuth

Monika Silvs

Dirk Dautzenberg

Herr Silvs

Alexander May

Wolfram Koch