Movie An ambivalent judicial case from 1904 comes to the movies
SDA
23.1.2025 - 09:08

Frieda Keller was a seamstress from St. Gallen; she was convicted of infanticide in 1904. The case caused a sensation throughout Switzerland. Director Maria Brendle made a movie about her fate. "Frieda's Case" is now showing in cinemas.
It was raining in St. Gallen. Or rather: it was pouring down. It was dripping from the old-fashioned umbrellas, and the make-up had to be constantly renewed, even the clothes were completely soaked at some point. It's fall 2023, the 25th day of filming for the social drama "Frieda's Fall". The very first scene is being filmed on Klosterplatz.
This gloomy historical case only got underway because the rain brought a corpse to light: Ernstli, the five-year-old son of seamstress Frieda Keller. She killed her child in 1904 and buried the body in the forest. Frieda had been raped and the child had been conceived in the process.
In the first scene of the film, in which it pours, we see the young lawyer Arnold Janggen (Max Simonischek), who will defend Frieda Keller, as well as the law-abiding public prosecutor and prison warden Walter Gmür (Stefan Merki). Later, country hunters will tell him about the gruesome discovery.
Shame, ethics, morality
With "Frieda's Case", director Maria Brendle has turned a true story into a movie. Brendle, born in Singen, Germany, works as a filmmaker in Germany and Switzerland. She has taken on one of the most famous cases in the history of Swiss justice.
It is about shame, ethics and morality. A profound case that has triggered debates about women's rights and a fairer society. It also had a significant influence on the development of the criminal justice system in Switzerland. For example, the definitions of murder and manslaughter in the Swiss Criminal Code were revised.
Swiss author and film director Michèle Minelli revisited the material in her historical novel "Die Verlorene" (2015); she co-authored the screenplay for "Frieda's Case". Director Maria Brendle has largely stuck to this template. But she has also left room for new characters: Erna Gmür, for example, who has an unwanted childless marriage with the public prosecutor.
There are still too few interesting and beautiful roles for women, explained Maria Brendle in an interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency. Women should not just be accessories, even if the story of Frieda Keller is told via men in the justice system. "Within the framework in which they can act, I wanted to show that." There is still room for clever female characters. "Perhaps," says Brendle, "Erna Gmür, for example, would have liked to become a public prosecutor. She was denied that. But she's still a strong character".
Heavy material
Despite the reinterpretation of characters, "Frieda's Case" is difficult material. Why does Maria Brendle do it? "I like working on true stories. You have guideposts, but you have to think about the characters behind them."
The director and her team have tried to bring lightness to the characters. Like with the Gmür couple, for example. The couple also had a life outside of the case. "I tried to have them play entertaining roles."
Just like the author Michèle Minelli, Maria Brendle said that she was approached with the material - and was immediately fascinated by it. For example, how women were and still are condemned and judged without really looking inside people.
The actual trial at the beginning of the 20th century triggered media hype and was reported on nationally. This brought women like Helene von Mülinen, a driving force behind the organized Swiss women's movement, and with her many women's associations, onto the scene. The fierce protests of the population resulted in Frieda Keller, initially sentenced to death, being "pardoned" - to life imprisonment in solitary confinement. According to today's legal understanding, this would be torture.
From today's perspective, it is not only the bigoted pardon that is a disgrace, but also the fact that her rapist, a husband and landlord, was never brought to justice. The law at the time protected married men who assaulted women.
Victim and perpetrator
So was Frieda more of a victim than a perpetrator? Maria Brendle relativized: "The question remains open, the ambivalence between victim and perpetrator always remains. Despite all the sympathy you can develop for Frieda: She committed a serious crime." It was important to Brendle to show that Frieda Keller was both a perpetrator and a victim, even in those times and circumstances.
The actress and St. Gallen native Julia Buchmann plays Frieda Keller. Maria Brendle said that working with her gave her many goosebumps. Among other things, it was the ambivalence in her role that carried the film.
St. Gallen, as the location of the events and where the tragic case of the seamstress is known, also contributes to the atmospheric success. Many locations, such as the old town, the monastery square or the prison, have hardly changed in the last hundred years - since the city and its inhabitants were shaken up by Frieda's case.
*This text by Nina Kobelt, Keystone-SDA was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.