The Tenderness of Wolves

The Tenderness of Wolves is a 1973 West German crime drama film directed by Ulli Lommel. The story is based on the crimes of German serial killer and cannibal Fritz Haarmann. It was written by Kurt Raab, who also stars in the film, and produced by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It was entered into the 23rd Berlin International Film Festival. Plot In war-torn Germany, a string of violent murders of young men and boys plagues a small town. The culprit is Fritz Haarman, a gay man with a history of petty crimes who works in the community as a government inspector. After carrying out the murders, Fritz butchers the bodies of his victims and he sells the meat to local restaurants and consumes it with his circle of unknowing friends, among them Luise, an aging proprietor of a local restaurant. Among the locals, Fritz has a reputation for exchanging money for sex with teenage boys. While checking identification cards at a train station one night, Fritz encounters a teenage boy there alone, and without identification. Instead of bringing him to the police, Fritz brings him to his home and seduces him. He subsequently kills and butchers him, and then dines on the meat with his fellow cannibals. Meanwhile, Fritz carries on a tempestuous relationship with his adult male lover, Hans, engaging in petty schemes to make money. Fritz's neighbor, Frau Linder, who lives in the apartment below him, is suspicious of Fritz, and takes note of odd noises she hears coming from his apartment in the middle of the night. On one occasion, Fritz kidnaps and kills a young boy. Frau Linder witnesses him leaving the apartment in the middle of the night with several bundles of matter wrapped in parchment paper. She follows him as he disposes of the bundles in the Ruhr River. The next day, Fritz socializes with Dora, his friend, and approaches a teenage piano player in a restaurant. He asks the boy to visit him at his home later, which he obliges. There, Fritz strangles him to death before biting his neck and engaging in necrophilia with the body.