As part of True Crime, a collaboration between NW and Utopia Library, we are screening Zodiac, David Fincher’s iconic thriller. The film reconstructs the hunt for the Zodiac Killer, who held California in his grip in the late 1960s and early 1970s and managed to keep the police, the press and public opinion in suspense for years. 

Fincher does not tell the story as a classic thriller in which the perpetrator and his motives are ultimately revealed. Instead, the focus is on the obsessive quest for answers. Journalists, detectives and, above all, cartoonist Robert Graysmith attempt to unravel the puzzle of cryptic letters, codes and murders. As the years pass, their fascination grows into an all-consuming quest that increasingly takes over their personal lives. 

With its meticulous reconstruction and almost documentary-like attention to detail, Zodiac shows how an unsolved crime continues to have an impact. Not only on those conducting the investigation, but also in the media and in the collective memory. The film thus explores not only the question of who the Zodiac Killer was, but also why we become so fascinated by crime, perpetrators and mysteries that may never be fully solved.