Otomo (film)

Critical reviews

The film received generally positive reviews from Western critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 100% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 10 reviews.[5] While Metacritic reported that the film had an average score of 60 out of 100, based on 8 critic reviews.[6]

Plot

The journey begins with Frederic Otomo departing from his home, early one morning, to get a job at a factory in Germany. There, he is refused employment from a cast of all Caucasian workers, predicated upon the claim that his shoes are not proper for the work. Later, he departs for home on a train, disappointed, to be kicked off of the train by a ticket-taker who claims that his ticket has expired. Suddenly, Otomo becomes a fugitive when the ticket-taker refuses to let him off of the train, and instead, tries to have him arrested. Fleeing, he later encounters a grandmother who attempts to help him escape Stuttgart, to Amsterdam. He falls in love with her, attempting to kiss her when he must leave, and is finally caught by police officers, while he is waiting for her on a bridge. Left no choice but to defend himself, Otomo, in desperation, stabs the five officers, and one of them shoots him dead.[7]

Background

The movie is a fictionalized account of an event that occurred on 8 August 1989 in Stuttgart. Frederic Otomo, a Cameroonian who also used the name of Albert Ament from Liberia, fatally stabbed police officers Harald Poppe and Peter Quast with a bayonet hidden in a rolled-up newspaper and wounded three other police officers before being fatally shot by one of the officers. See de:Polizistenmord auf der Gaisburger Brücke