Der Spiegel calls Death-Jumper "witty disaster cinema." If it's about anything, it's about the labyrinth we inhabit, and the everyday grotesqueries we somehow manage to survive. The characters have titles rather than names: A Son of Rich Parents, for instance, is a would-be filmmaker who only shoots screen tests; or the Helpful Man, whom no one helps; the Fleeting Acquaintance and the Passerby; the Bad Mother and the Bad Actor; and of course, the suicide of the film's title. They meet in a series of short, ironic mini-dramas, seamlessly fused by the echo and recognition effects which are critical to director Benno Trautmann's wry humor and unflagging pessimism--and which reflect as much on the cinema as on life. In awarding him a prize at the Max Ophuls Competition for 1985, jurors wrote, "Trautmann reflects, both contextually as well as formally, a present-day situation for which politicians can no longer offer any solutions." And Der Spiegel continues, "The second feature film by the obstinate outsider Trautmann is animated by a thirst for absurd arguments and situations; it counters the prevailing cinema of emotion with a thick-headed and crafty cinema of thinking, rough in its style but filled with the keenest wit."