actor Martin Kurath who is in prison develops a friendship with Thomas Manzoni, the 15-year-old son of the prison warden. The two fall in love and they both yearn for Kurath's release. This triggers intense indignation in their surroundings. After Kurath is released a year later, Thomas, accompanied by Kurath, tells his parents he is a homosexual. His father tells him to leave and never return. Kurath and Thomas move in together and Thomas enrolls in school. Thomas' father, however, then has him arrested and condemned to a brutal reformatory. Kurath obtains a fake passport and poses as a psychology doctoral candidate and helps Thomas escape with him to Germany. They are betrayed by a German homosexual friend of Kurath's who insists, in Kurath's absence, that Thomas become his lover in order to obtain a German residency permit. Thomas does so, but then refuses to sleep with the betrayer, is kicked out and prostitutes himself. Broken by these experiences, he voluntarily returns to the reformatory. When he reaches 21 and is released, he is so psychologically damaged that, despite reunion with Kurath, he attempts suicide and is committed to a psychiatric hospital. He escapes and the film ends with a TV announcement that the police are looking for him and that the public should, if approaching him, treat him gently, as he is very depressed and confused.
Literary original
The novelDie Konsequenz, which reads like the diary of Martin Kurath, is set in 1974. The Swiss Alexander Ziegler processed his personal experiences in the book. He himself served two and a half years in prison for "seducing an innocent underaged person to unnatural sexual acts".
Film production
Alexander Ziegler contributed personally in the collaboration of Bernd Eichinger's 1977 sensitive adaptation of the novel and with director Wolfgang Petersen. Die Konsequenz was made-for-television and filmed in black and white on 16 mm film. The soundtrack is composed by Nils Sustrate. In March 2008, the film was released on DVD as part of a complete works edition of director Wolfgang Petersen's films.
Controversy
The original version of the film received a Wertvoll quality award in the German Filmprädikat rating scheme, but was censored due to its perceived incendiary content in the first television broadcast on ARD on November 8, 1977, and regional affiliate Bayerischer Rundfunk refused to relay the transmission signal. The novel and film had a pivotal role in West Germany in starting a dialogue on the topic of homosexuality, a role analogous to that played by the works of Roger Peyrefitte in France.
