Homicide

A WAVE OF VIOLENT RACE CRIMES IS shaking Chicago. An old Jewish woman has been murdered. The murder investigator Bobby Gold is tracking a drug dealer when he suddenly is taken off the case to investigate the woman's death. He discovers that her wealthy and powerful son, Dr Klein, has a finger in the game; Klein suspects the murdercr is antisemitic and believes Gold's Jewish heritage will spur him to make a thorough go for the murderer. Gold is torn between his professional pride and ethnic loyalty, but as the investigation goes on he begins to increasingly believe in an antisemitic conspiracy. Thc film presents a remarkably brutal world, a big city hell where the work of the police is made even morc difficult by corrupt politics, unpredictable violence and fierce racism. This is an elegantly twined thriller from the famous playwright David Mamet. _
Comment:
THE MURDER INVESTIGATOR BOBBY GOLD is chasing an unknown man on a roof. There is a faint light from the city in the back-ground: red beams of light against a pitch dark night sky. White doves, with their rustling wings, circle above Gold's hcad. At first he didn't believe in the Jewish woman's story about the gunshot - he didn't believe there was a man on the roof. Now he is chasing him.
But, the man escapes. Gold stops. The beam from his flash-light falls on a yellowed scrap of paper, held together by a paper-clip. One word is written on the paper. Grofaz. Maybe this is a clue. Maybe this is the key to the mystery? Because there must be a mystery?
Homicide is about Bobby Gold, a Jewish police officer who, after what appears to be a line of coincidences, is put in charge of the investigation of a store-owner's death, and then is faced with the question of who he is himself. Or rather, faced with the fact that he's never been anyone. The words are repeated. ''You're not a Jew. Who are you then?'' And then he finds the scrap of paper. Grofaz. This might not be just another pointless murder of an old woman, this might be part of something bigger. Bobby Gold might have been pulled into circumstances where he finally can regain himself. This new murder case appears to hold a secret, almost a magic sign, an invitation for him to look for the truth. Grofaz.
The man on the roof gets away. Or, he might just have left, without even knowing he was being chased? The doves' feathers are so white, as if someone painted them in phosphorescent color. There is peace on the roof, a remarkable beauty. The city is anonymous, a nothing. But Bobby Gold doesn't notice, because he is tracing a mystery. He's found a scrap of paper. He's going to find more, signs and coincidences, and he believes that he, like a cross-country runner, will follow the clues to the end of the mystery, the answer to the question, echoing through all of the film: Who are you then?
CARINA RYDBERG