I can hardly contain my enthusiasm, yet the right words don’t seem to come to mind that would lend color to all these feelings glowing within me. So I remain with the banal, with the simple. I stay with the kind of description for which I have words. That will have to do. The enthusiasm will continue to shine within me nonetheless.

I’m taken with this little documentary not for the reason I should be. Not because of the story. Not because of the main figure, the serial killer Jeff Dahmer. I never sense him as the core of the narrative, but only ever as the thread along which the stories of the other people wind and unfold.

It’s about the people who came into contact with him. But not about the victims or the survivors of his victims. The driving figure in it is Derf Backderf, a comic artist who created a graphic novel about Jeff Dahmer – “My Friend Dahmer”. He went to the same school as Jeff, was something like his school friend. Other school friends also have their say, until these friendships ended and the killing began.

It screams in my face what kind of life is possible or was possible over there in these United States. It’s the images of it and the mood of life within it. The images of dense forests, lush green gardens, large and beautiful houses, a wide beach. The mood conveyed through the narratives of people who were friends with Jeff Dahmer and were influenced by him for decades and still are today. And of course the origin story of the graphic novel about this murderer.

Not only at the end did it become clear to me that Jeff Dahmer doesn’t interest me at all. From the very beginning I’ve been captivated by all these other things. Finally, a documentary that shines because the horrific main figure recedes far into the background, essentially blurs so much that it becomes invisible, almost insignificant. In the end, something beautiful has emerged from this horror, this little book. But also this little documentary. And that is the highlight. Thank you.

Available until 19 August 2026.