Dead Man Walking

Sister Helen Prejean belongs to a Catholic order that is committed to serving the disadvantaged. When Matthew Poncelet, who has been sentenced to death for rape and murder, contacts her she encounters a deeply sexist and racist man. Poncelet protests his innocence and begs for Sister Helen’s help. She persuades a lawyer to petition for clemency without a fee and is met with a wave of antagonism on the part of the victims’ families. Nonetheless she continues to visit the condemned man, even after his clemency appeal is rejected, and accompanies him on the long and painful journey towards realising the truth about himself.
Tim Robbins’ second film as a director is based on facts; he himself wrote the screenplay, adapting the book ‘Sister Helen Prejean’. Even today, the work remains one of the most uncompromising films about the death penalty and has lost none of its topicality. This chamber piece screened at the Berlinale in 1996 and Sean Penn won a Silver Bear for his performance. On the occasion of the film’s twentieth anniversary, Tim Robbins, who was a member of the Berlinale International Jury in 2013, will be awarded the Berlinale Camera.