The title of Daniel Hoesl’s and Julia Niemann’s supercilious social satire is fitting as it is an unintentional admission of the smug self-importance emanating from every scene in which the presumptuous plot hammers home its manipulative message. The latter is spelled out in the final moments—just in case anyone in the audience didn’t catch the continuous repetition during the rest of the film. That the film feels much longer than its sparse 80-plus minutes running time is partly due to the tediousness of a narrative stolidly refusing to make any visual or intellectual move from its starting point. But it’s also Veni Vidi Vici‘s very message.
Paraphrasing the sociopathic main character Amon Maynard’s (Laurence Rupp) barely teenage daughter Paula (played with infantile indifference by a much older looking Olivia Goschler), the film’s message seems to be: The top 1 percent can do whatever they want, “because you let us get away with it”. The ‘whatever’ in the case of the multimillionaire Maynard’s slick entrepreneur Amon, his cultured slightly older second wife Viktoria (Ursina Lardi), Paula, and their inexorably loyal butler Alfred (Markus Schleinzer), is murdering people.
Paula explains, in her placid commentary, that her father loves to go out in the countryside since it helps him to unwind. There Amon shoots random people, accompanied by helpmate Alfred. Any attempts to cover the crime are purely cosmetic. He openly admits in calm conversation with journalist Volker (Dominik Warta) that no one will convict him, but the writer (and an elderly game keeper-a witness to many of the kills) are committed to do exactly that. Authorities from local police to ministers, however, think otherwise and treat both accusers like harmless nut jobs. The common people don’t seem to care, don’t dare or are truly oblivious to what’s hidden in plain sight, which is an interesting thread that this righteous cinematic rendition neglects to explore.
Another unexplored question is the why. Why did Amon become a serial killer? Why doesn’t anyone stop him? Why does he desperately wish to be stopped? Why does he cherish his family if he is an ice-cold psychopath? But those intriguing points remain unanswered. Overall, it seems that this iteration is more a reductive riff on a well-known trope than an original societal study. It has been far better handled by films like The Most Dangerous Game, Hunting Scenes from Bavaria and, yes, even, The Hunt. The latter’s anti-democratic stance is revealingly close to the neo-conservative undertones of Veni Vidi Vici: a one-shot satire bluntly missing the point.
Veni Vidi Vici screened as part of Sundance 2024.