'Murderer's House' - University of Victoria

5.1 “Here is the Finger with the Ring”: The Importance of Physical Evidence
The motif of providing physical evidence of the truth of one‟s story is a theme
that is found in the tale of “Der Räuberbräutigam.” This motif of supplying tangible proof
can be applied not only to Sanders-Brahms‟ use of documentary footage and to her
evocation of the Holocaust through the fairy tale segment, but also to the creation of the
film itself. At the end of the tale, the miller‟s daughter is able to see that her murderous
bridegroom and his band are brought to justice for their crimes against women by telling
publicly the story of what she has witnessed. The miller‟s daughter shrewdly disguises
her story as a dream until the last moment, when she produces tangible evidence – the
severed finger of the young woman whose murder she witnessed, stating: “Hier ist der
Finger mit dem Ring” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 96). 95
The theme of offering concrete evidence can be applied to Sanders-Brahms‟ use
of documentary footage in the film. Sanders-Brahms confronts the fictionalized account
of her mother‟s personal gendered experiences of the war with the documentary record of
the era, by showing authentic footage that illustrates the results of the war started by the
Nazis: aerial bombings, parentless children, bombed out cities, burning airplanes, and
dead soldiers. These images are the „tangible proof‟ that the realities of war that shaped
Lene‟s personal story were real, not merely imagined. Just as the miller‟s daughter can
prove false her claim, “Mein Schatz, das träumte mir nur” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-
Erzählung 96) 96 by producing the irrefutable proof of the severed finger and golden ring
of the murdered bride, so too, Sanders-Brahms provides tangible proof in the form of
95 “Here is the finger with the ring” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 96).
96 “It was just a dream, my love” (Sanders-Brahms, Film-Erzählung 96).
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