{ "id": "epak1mmnjw", "slug": "der-knochenmann", "title": "Der Knochenmann", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films", "label": "Black comedy and satire films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1998-2024", "label": "Released 1998 to 2024", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1998-2024" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Der Knochenmann (The Bone Man) is a 2009 Austrian black-comedy crime thriller by Wolfgang Murnberger, the third Wolf Haas Brenner adaptation, starring Josef Hader as a debt collector investigating a Styrian fried-chicken inn.", "snippet": "Der Knochenmann (The Bone Man) is a 2009 Austrian black-comedy crime thriller by Wolfgang Murnberger, the third Wolf Haas Brenner adaptation, starring Josef Hader as a debt collector investigating a Styrian fried-chicken inn.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.black-comedy-and-satire-films.yr-1998-2024", "markdown": "# Der Knochenmann\n\n**Der Knochenmann** (English title: *The Bone Man*) is a 2009 Austrian crime comedy-thriller directed by Wolfgang Murnberger, the third film adaptation of a Brenner crime novel by the Austrian author Wolf Haas, following *[Komm, süßer Tod](https://www.edgepedia.org/komm-su-er-tod)* (2000) and *Silentium* (2004).[1](https://www.dor-film.com/filme/der-knochenmann) Josef Hader plays the ex-detective Simon Brenner, who is sent to a rural fried-chicken restaurant in Styria to collect an overdue leasing payment and stumbles into a murder mystery centered on the establishment's bone-grinding machine.[2](https://filminstitut.at/filme/der-knochenmann)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / screenplay | Wolfgang Murnberger; screenplay by Josef Hader, Wolfgang Murnberger, and Wolf Haas, based on Haas's novel[1](https://www.dor-film.com/filme/der-knochenmann) |\n| Production | Dor Film; producers Danny Krausz and Kurt Stocker; cinematography Peter von Haller; music by Sofa Surfers[2](https://filminstitut.at/filme/der-knochenmann) |\n| Premiere and release | World premiere February 9, 2009 at the Berlin International Film Festival (Panorama Special); German theatrical release February 19, 2009; Austrian release March 6, 2009[3](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/der-knochenmann_62d60592934a3bd9e040007f01001ba5) • [2](https://filminstitut.at/filme/der-knochenmann) |\n| Runtime | Reported as 126 minutes by filmportal.de, 120 minutes by Dor Film, and 117 minutes by the Austrian Film Institute and streaming listings[3](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/der-knochenmann_62d60592934a3bd9e040007f01001ba5) • [1](https://www.dor-film.com/filme/der-knochenmann) • [2](https://filminstitut.at/filme/der-knochenmann) |\n| Main cast | Josef Hader (Brenner), Josef Bierbichler (Löschenkohl), Birgit Minichmayr (Birgit/Gitti), Simon Schwarz (Berti), Christoph Luser (Pauli)[2](https://filminstitut.at/filme/der-knochenmann) |\n| Awards | Third place, Panorama Publikumspreis at the 59th Berlinale; Diagonale 2009 acting prizes for Josef Hader and Birgit Minichmayr; two prizes at the Liège Festival du Film Policier[1](https://www.dor-film.com/filme/der-knochenmann) |\n| Reception | IMDb rating 7.4 from about 5,100 votes; 182,377 admissions in Germany as of August 2009[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1181927/) • [5](https://www.filmportal.de/film/der-knochenmann_2f0595f5c17d40a18a2a8b4359a183d9) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nBrenner, an ex-policeman now working as a debt collector for the car-leasing firm of his friend Berti (Simon Schwarz), is sent to the winter countryside of Styria to track down a man named Horvath, who has fallen behind on his leasing payments.[6](https://www.justwatch.com/at/Film/Der-Knochenmann) The only clue leads to the \"Löschenkohl\", a well-known country inn specializing in breaded fried chicken, run by the gruff old Löschenkohl (Josef Bierbichler).[1](https://www.dor-film.com/filme/der-knochenmann) In the cellar, a bone-meal machine grinds the weekly remains of roughly a thousand chickens into feed for the next generation of poultry, and Brenner gradually notices that human bones are mixing with the chicken carcasses.[7](https://www.tele.at/streaming/details/1475670/der-knochenmann.html) • [8](https://www.austrianfilms.com/film/der_knochenmann)\n\nRather than a conventional whodunit, the film follows the conflicts of the Löschenkohl family and Brenner's growing attraction to Birgit, the kitchen manager and the innkeeper's daughter-in-law, whom the film's makers treated as the occasion for Brenner's first full love story.[9](https://www.critic.de/film/der-knochenmann-1539/) • [10](https://www.austrianfilms.com/interview/wolfgang_murnberger/der_knochenmann_dreh_DE) The money the old man takes weekly from the till ends up with a prostitute in [Bratislava](https://www.edgepedia.org/bratislava) and a pimp who is blackmailing him, and the plot culminates during a masked ball at the inn, with lovemaking and murder taking place in the cellar while the village dances upstairs.[3](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/der-knochenmann_62d60592934a3bd9e040007f01001ba5) • [11](https://hader.at/filme/der-knochenmann/)\n\n## Adaptation from the novel\n\n**Departure from the book.** Murnberger stated that the novel was very static: by the time Brenner arrives, everything has already happened, which the filmmakers judged unfilmable, so they reassembled the material, dropped the footballer storyline and the artists, and turned the plot into what is essentially a family story with a love interest for Brenner.[10](https://www.austrianfilms.com/interview/wolfgang_murnberger/der_knochenmann_dreh_DE) The screenplay went through five drafts written alternately by Murnberger with Haas and by Hader alone.[10](https://www.austrianfilms.com/interview/wolfgang_murnberger/der_knochenmann_dreh_DE) The credit order itself changed across the series: *Komm, süßer Tod* credited Haas, Murnberger, Hader; *Silentium* credited Murnberger, Hader, Haas; and *Der Knochenmann* credited Hader first.[12](https://www.derstandard.at/story/3265456/ein-detektiv-kein-durchblick-die-haerte)\n\nMurnberger described the film's genre mix as a step beyond its predecessors: where the first film was a crime comedy and the second a thriller comedy, the third is a \"thriller-horror-love comedy\".[8](https://www.austrianfilms.com/film/der_knochenmann) In Austria the film was also described as an anti-Heimatfilm, and Murnberger cited [Monty Python](https://www.edgepedia.org/monty-python) and the [Coen brothers](https://www.edgepedia.org/coen-brothers) among his comic influences.[13](https://www.choices.de/film/der-knochenmann/filmkritik) A dissertation on the film records that producer Danny Krausz of Dor Film called it \"an Austrian Fargo\", and the Apple TV listing likewise bills it as a \"bitterbösen Austro-Fargo\".[14](https://etd.library.emory.edu/downloads/jq085k67v?locale=de) • [15](https://tv.apple.com/de/movie/der-knochenmann/umc.cmc.73gm9hdkvoeeybgqz451wdts4)\n\n## Production\n\nThe film was shot between January 21 and March 14, 2008, on locations in Vienna, Lower Austria, and Styria, with the Austrian Film Institute, ORF, the Vienna Film Fund, and Land Niederösterreich among its supporters.[16](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Der-Knochenmann__70185.html) • [2](https://filminstitut.at/filme/der-knochenmann) It was filmed on 35 mm in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and the score was written and performed by the Austrian band Sofa Surfers.[3](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/der-knochenmann_62d60592934a3bd9e040007f01001ba5) The German FSK rating was \"ab 16 Jahren\" (16 and over).[3](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/der-knochenmann_62d60592934a3bd9e040007f01001ba5)\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nThe film premiered in the Panorama Special section of the 59th Berlinale and placed third in the Panorama audience award.[1](https://www.dor-film.com/filme/der-knochenmann) At the Diagonale festival in 2009, Hader and Minichmayr received the acting prizes, and at the crime film festival in Liège the film won the Prix Meilleur Film du Jury Jeunes and a best actress prize for Minichmayr.[1](https://www.dor-film.com/filme/der-knochenmann) It also screened in competition at the Beaune Thriller Film Festival and at festivals in Budapest, Romania, Slovakia, Paris, Taipei, and Espoo.[1](https://www.dor-film.com/filme/der-knochenmann)\n\nCritics highlighted the dry, sarcastic dialogue between Hader and Bierbichler and the film's blend of black humor with graphic murder scenes; the choices review noted that it quotes *The Texas Chainsaw Massacre* at moments while remaining far from a splatter film.[13](https://www.choices.de/film/der-knochenmann/filmkritik) The critic.de review observed that the viewer learns the killer's identity early, so the film works not as a whodunit but through its characters and their conflicted relationships.[9](https://www.critic.de/film/der-knochenmann-1539/) On Rotten Tomatoes the audience score stood at 79 percent from more than 250 ratings, with reviewers comparing it to a Coen brothers film.[17](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-bone-man) In Germany it sold 182,377 tickets by August 2009.[5](https://www.filmportal.de/film/der-knochenmann_2f0595f5c17d40a18a2a8b4359a183d9) Its predecessor *Silentium* had been the most successful Austrian film of 2004, and the Brenner films drew nearly a quarter million Austrian viewers each in their first two installments, though they performed modestly in German cinemas.[18](https://www.pcgames.de/Der-Knochenmann-Film-220355/Tests/Der-Knochenmann-676392/) • [19](https://www.epd-film.de/filmkritiken/der-knochenmann)\n\n## The Brenner series\n\n*Der Knochenmann* is the third of four theatrical adaptations of Wolf Haas's Brenner novels directed by Murnberger with Hader in the title role, preceded by *Komm, süßer Tod* (2000) and *Silentium* (2004) and followed by *Das ewige Leben* (2015).[20](https://www.moviepilot.de/movies/der-knochenmann/aehnliche) The series moved geographically with each entry: Vienna for the first film, Salzburg for the second, and, for the third, the countryside, which Murnberger chose because it offered new possibilities after the urban settings.[13](https://www.choices.de/film/der-knochenmann/filmkritik) A fourth Brenner film was already in planning at the time of release, and Murnberger joked about the shifting screenplay credits eventually ending with \"Regie: Hader\".[12](https://www.derstandard.at/story/3265456/ein-detektiv-kein-durchblick-die-haerte)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Der Knochenmann, DOR FILM](https://www.dor-film.com/filme/der-knochenmann)\n2. [Der Knochenmann, Österreichisches Filminstitut](https://filminstitut.at/filme/der-knochenmann)\n3. [Der Knochenmann, filmportal.de](https://www.filmportal.de/en/movie/der-knochenmann_62d60592934a3bd9e040007f01001ba5)\n4. [Der Knochenmann (2009), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1181927/)\n5. [Der Knochenmann, filmportal.de (German page, visitor figures)](https://www.filmportal.de/film/der-knochenmann_2f0595f5c17d40a18a2a8b4359a183d9)\n6. [Der Knochenmann – Film: Jetzt online Stream anschauen, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/at/Film/Der-Knochenmann)\n7. [Der Knochenmann, tele.at](https://www.tele.at/streaming/details/1475670/der-knochenmann.html)\n8. [Der Knochenmann, Austrian Films](https://www.austrianfilms.com/film/der_knochenmann)\n9. [Der Knochenmann – Kritik, critic.de](https://www.critic.de/film/der-knochenmann-1539/)\n10. [«Die ideale Ausgangssituation, um einmal Brenner in eine Liebesgeschichte zu verwickeln.», Austrian Films interview with Wolfgang Murnberger](https://www.austrianfilms.com/interview/wolfgang_murnberger/der_knochenmann_dreh_DE)\n11. [Der Knochenmann, Josef Hader official site](https://hader.at/filme/der-knochenmann/)\n12. [\"Der Knochenmann\": Ein Detektiv, kein Durchblick: Die Härte!, derStandard.at](https://www.derstandard.at/story/3265456/ein-detektiv-kein-durchblick-die-haerte)\n13. [Der Knochenmann – Filmkritik und Interview, choices](https://www.choices.de/film/der-knochenmann/filmkritik)\n14. [Distribution Agreement (dissertation), Emory University](https://etd.library.emory.edu/downloads/jq085k67v?locale=de)\n15. [Der Knochenmann, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/de/movie/der-knochenmann/umc.cmc.73gm9hdkvoeeybgqz451wdts4)\n16. [Der Knochenmann, Crew United](https://www.crew-united.com/en/Der-Knochenmann__70185.html)\n17. [Der Knochenmann (The Bone Man), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-bone-man)\n18. [Der Knochenmann Test, PC Games](https://www.pcgames.de/Der-Knochenmann-Film-220355/Tests/Der-Knochenmann-676392/)\n19. [Kritik zu Der Knochenmann, epd Film](https://www.epd-film.de/filmkritiken/der-knochenmann)\n20. [Ähnliche Filme wie Der Knochenmann, Moviepilot](https://www.moviepilot.de/movies/der-knochenmann/aehnliche)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Black comedy and satire films › Released 1998 to 2024*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/der-knochenmann", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/der-knochenmann.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Der Knochenmann\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/der-knochenmann. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Der Knochenmann](https://www.edgepedia.org/der-knochenmann)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/der-knochenmann](https://www.edgepedia.org/der-knochenmann). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Der Knochenmann\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/der-knochenmann. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Der Knochenmann is a 2009 Austrian black-comedy crime thriller by Wolfgang Murnberger, the third Wolf Haas Brenner adaptation, starring Josef Hader as a debt collector investigating a Styrian fried-chicken inn." }