Norbert Kuckelmann is both a lawyer and a filmmaker. He has made several highly acclaimed feature length fiction-documentaries such as The Last Years of Childhood (1979), Shooting Practice (1974), and Fear Is a Second Shadow (1975) - each an extensively researched project with a psychatric theme. Kuckelmann was a founder of the Promotion Board for Young German Cinema, as well as a co-founder, with Peter Lilienthal, of the production company FFAT (Munich).
Kuckelmann elicits remarkably moving performances from non-professional actors in this scathing analysis of how a young boy's life is destroyed by the very institutions supposedly designed to protect him. Thirteen-year-old Martin Sonntag lives on the outskirts of Munich in a section of town they call Little Chicago. Martin's police file began when he was seven; at the age of nine he was committing petty thefts, cracking open vending machines, and mastering the art of escape. In his special school, they refer to him affectionately as a “hopeless case.” When Martin and his brother Hans are caught stealing from a building site, Martin smashes a bottle over the watchman's head, and is placed in a home for juvenile offenders, while his brother is sent to juvenile prison. After an aborted experience with a therapist, a series of escapes, and the death of his brother, Martin, at the age of 14, crosses the threshold of “criminal responsibility.”