So here he is sitting in a café in Bern: Manfred Liechti, who plays the “amok retiree” in Laurent Wyss’ “Peter K. – Alone Against the State”. Amok retired? The Bernese actor (“Die Herbstzeitloser”, “Gotthard”, “Wilder” and, currently, “Luchsinger und die Götter”) immediately and vehemently contradicts: “This title was written solely out of a thirst for sensation. Peter’s behavior Hans Kneubühl is not meeting the definition of Amoktat “. For Liechti, the man from Bienne is “a poor soul who was terribly afraid”. Kneubühl would have written several times in his diaries: “They have come and they want to liquidate me”.
Liechti has only fleeting memories of the days in 2010 when Kneubühl held the city of Bienne and shortly after the whole of Switzerland with bated breath. At the time, he would never have thought of making a film of it. The fact that one has now been created and with him in the lead role is “great luck” for Liechti.
And this is how it happened: at the Solothurn Film Days 2014, Liechti appeared in the short film “Mosquito” by Timo von Gunten. In it, a man instigates a private war against an insect. The producers of the film, which Laurent Wyss was able to make much later than expected for countless reasons, mainly due to difficult financing and the crown crisis, would have seen it and said: “This is our Kneubühl”.
Although Liechti is significantly smaller than Kneubühl, there is certainly some visual similarity. Liechti laughs: “Yes, I am not suitable for either a young prince or a friendly neighbor.” With his physiognomy of him, he was chosen for the “marginal and slightly psychopathic” type. Liechti does not say this in a disrespectful way, but with a great understanding for these people. Due to his own biography – a mentally ill father, a mother who had to work almost day and night due to difficult circumstances, difficult school times – he knows what it means to stand on the sidelines, to be attacked and to fight his own way through. .
Atmosphere instead of revolt
It quickly became clear that the film had to focus on Kneubühl as a person. So psychogram instead of action shots, chamber acting instead of detective film. It has become a “soft text” film, as Liechti calls it. More looks instead of words, more atmosphere instead of riots.
This means that Liechti can be seen in almost any scene. He brings the film with his presence, his facial expressions, his looks – and he does it convincingly: Liechti is both the vibrating center and the motionless pole of the film. It clarifies how Kneubühl could have managed in those days. He embodies the driven retiree who was full of fear, but also full of determination, impressive without apologizing or even glorifying his actions and his actions.
It is not an easy way. It’s more of a tightrope walk than a wide road. How do you manage it? Liechti, who recounts his many years in the world of cinema in a fun, quick and flowery way in broader Bernese German, pauses, takes the time to respond, and again mentions his past. Certainly he was able to empathize with the people of Kneubühl because he had experience as a “stranger”.
Meeting with Kneubühl
Liechti once visited Kneubühl in the Thun regional prison. At first he was not sure: “What if for Kneubühl I am also someone ‘from the state’, someone who wants to get angry with him?” But no answers to these questions were needed. On the contrary, Kneubühl was happy and thanked him, Liechti recalls, and took a friendly interest in him. Although Kneubühl continues to be a suspicious person, they found each other surprisingly quickly and were able to have a personal conversation.
How do you assess this man, who for a short time was the center of everyone’s attention in Switzerland and who, despite all the media attention, remained incomprehensible? Another long thought. “I feel great sadness and regret for him,” Liechti said. At the same time, it is difficult to understand why he reacted that way and not differently. “Because he who knows how he would behave in such circumstances,” Liechti asks. The fears, the mistrust, the obsession with being followed.
Kneubühl is “a victim of his own mind, his own software,” says Liechti. And of course there was a wish that she didn’t have to go out like that. “This act was a statement,” says Liechti, referring to Kneubühl’s long contact with various offices and agencies, all his letters, his arguments.
What do you want for Kneubühl, who will probably never leave prison again? “Peace of mind,” says Liechti. Perhaps Kneubühl has the advantage that his character and his nature help him to endure everything. Why: “I would probably kill myself.”
Building repairs and previews
The film is finally in theaters today. How do they like the result? Liechti laughs. He was obviously biased, but he thinks “we can be more than satisfied with the modest means we had at our disposal.” How are things with him? Liechti wants to act, he wants commissions, he wants to design roles. At the moment, however, nothing is ready to be decided – and, he adds, “unfortunately there is also a lot of rubbish being turned over”. So he works as a craftsman again – almost 30 years ago, Liechti founded a company for building repair services. Liechti does smaller jobs in, in and around the house, as summarized by his work.
But first it will go on tour in Swiss cinemas. Manfred Liechti will talk about the film at numerous preview events and answer questions from the audience. Certainly again and again this: why do you play retiree?
* This text by Raphael Amstutz, Keystone-SDA, was produced with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
