Biography
Helmut Christian Görlitz, born in Hamburg in 1944, studied psychology and philosophy in Hamburg and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. Afterwards, in the mid-1970s, the film enthusiast took a job as assistant director to Ottokar Runze. In total, he participated in six of Runze's films in this capacity. Runze also produced Görlitz's directorial debut in 1981, the haunting drama "Das Ende vom Anfang" (1981) about the brutal residential education and forced labor in the institutions of the Diakonie Freistatt, which eventually causes one of the youths to slide into criminality.
In the following years, Görlitz shifted his focus entirely to television work, often serving as scriptwriter in addition to directing. He worked in a wide variety of genres, shooting episodes of the crime series "Der Fahnder" (1983), the lawyer series "Ein heikler Fall" (1986-88) and the family series "Unsere Hagenbecks" (1991). His 12-part series "Der kleine Vampir - Neue Abenteuer" (1993) received the Children's Jury Prize at the Chicago Children's Film Festival.
His drama "Die Bombe" (1988), with Michael Degen in the role of a terrorist who wants to detonate a massive atomic bomb in Hamburg, received much attention. The film sparked controversy even before it aired: the plan was for the bomb to actually detonate at the end of the film, but ZDF had the scene cut out before it was broadcast.
In other ways, too, Görlitz was often the man for gritty material and human abysses, which he never portrayed in a lurid way, however, but in a differentiated and sensitive manner. The drama "Freier Fall" (1997) with Josef Bierbichler, which won a Grimme Award in gold, was about political corruption, betrayal of love and toxic masculinity; in "Das Böse" (1997) with Annett Renneberg and Ulrich Tukur, sexual abuse and twisted moral concepts lead to tragedy. His dark "Bella Block" episode "Geflüsterte Morde" (1999, also screenplay), about a man who wants to avenge his trans girlfriend who has AIDS, received excellent reviews at the Munich Film Festival, but was initially held back by ZDF and eventually aired in a later program slot rather than in prime time. In the judicial drama "Nachts wenn der Tag beginnt" (2003), a murderess (Nina Petri) who has escaped from prison tries to force the judge at her trial to review the case.
Lighter material was the crime comedy "Ein Job" (2008), with Vanessa Redgrave in a key role as a radical anarchist senior citizen who gets in the way of a Ukrainian hit woman. Görlitz also shot episodes of various series, including "Die Verbrechen des Professor Capellari," "Das Duo" and "Kommissar Rex."
Christian Görlitz again directed a feature film with the tragicomedy "Fleisch ist mein Gemüse" ("Krauts, Doubts & Rock 'n' Roll", 2008). The film adaptation of entertainer Heinz Strunk's memories of his youth received very good reviews; at the 2009 German Film Awards, ensemble member Andreas Schmidt was named Best Supporting Actor.
Despite this success, Görlitz then returned to working exclusively for television. His Munich "Tatort" episode "Gestern war kein Tag" (2010) received positive reviews; his sophisticated "Spreewaldkrimi" feature "Spiel mit dem Tod" (2016) was also well received. Most notably, Görlitz was one of the regular directors of the crime series "Der Kriminalist" from 2009 to 2019, of which he directed 30 episodes.
Görlitz's penultimate television film, again very dark, received outstanding reviews: the drama "Sieben Stunden" ("Seven Hours", 2018), based on a real case, tells the story of a psychotherapist (Bibiana Beglau) who is taken hostage in a Bavarian high-security prison by a brutal sex offender (Till Firit) and raped several times. For this film, Görlitz was again nominated for the Grimme Award.
Görlitz made his last film in the summer of 2021: the dystopian drama "Morin" starring Brigitte Hobmeier. Before the film's completion, Christian Görlitz died in Hamburg on January 10, 2022.