This is how Renegade actor Dimitri Krebs behaves

“Traitor” is Switzerland's calling card this autumn. This historic case has not reflected well on the country. The main role was given to a newcomer to acting. How did this happen?

Tobias Sedelmaier/ch media

No, he didn't learn anything about the story in school, Dimitri Krebs said. Neither did anyone in his circle of friends. “I think most people my age have never heard of people being shot in Switzerland in the 1940s. I think that's crazy.” This story is more than just a footnote, it tells a lot about Switzerland Nature and external image.

During World War II, a young, penniless raider dreams of a singing career and falls in love with Nazis in St. Gallen. Ernst Schrämli was not the only one to do this initially. But he was caught spying, delivering strategic but inconsequential documents and grenades to the enemy. As the winds were changing and it became clear that the Allies were winning the war, the Swiss executed him and 16 others as “traitors”. To maintain a clean state. Meanwhile, Emile Boehler continued to supply weapons to the Nazis on a large scale.

“I thought the email from the casting agency was spam”

This is a shortened version of this historical case presented by Niklaus Meienberg and Richard Dindo in the 1976 documentary “Shooting the Traitor Ernst S.”. Processed. Some 50 years later, director Michael Krummenacher released the feature film “Traitor.” Starring alongside well-known actors such as Fabian Hinrichs, Luna Wedler, Stefan Gubser and others. There was also a newcomer with no acting experience in the lead role: Dimitri Krebs, who introduced himself in interviews as “Dimi.”

How the lanky 27-year-old, who sits casually in a shirt and gold chain as if drinking a beer after get off work and often uses “mega” before words, managed to star in the prestigious What about the project? About the music, Krebs said. He played drums with an old friend of the director's who was desperately searching for the part. «Then I got an email from the casting agency. At first I thought it was spam. Then we went to London drama school for a couple of weeks. I don't know why Michael chose me. “I never asked,” he said with a laugh.

Krebs is charming as Schramley, a restless soul who can never quite be in peace with himself and will do anything to escape the ever-busy, stingy St. Gallen. His mother died and his father despised him. He grew up at home under the care of guardians. Yet the film itself often remains vague and erratic in its characterizations, becoming bright and symbolic in subtle places. Especially the sound part looks very out of place. It's not because Krebs pulled out all the stops that “Traitor” is important rather than a masterpiece.

Luna Wedler plays Gerti Zanelli, the factory owner's daughter. Needless to say, she was Schrämli's lover.Image: Ascot Elite Entertainment

Yelling on set is not his thing

Even after filming wrapped, the actors had no idea how likable their characters were supposed to be. “Even after reading his well-written letters from prison, I'm still confused about what kind of person he was. Certainly a man who was influenced by everything and very childish. He wanted to be famous, not in He works hard at the factory. To achieve this, he deceives others and urges his girlfriend Gerty to have an abortion, but he also learns how cohesion works because he has never experienced intimacy or love.”

Unlike Cancer, he grew up sheltered. He writes music in his free time (including in the Nelly Furtado cover band Nelly Schweiz) and works full-time at an adolescent psychiatric clinic. Since 2019, he has also been studying social work. In conversation, Cancer comes across as a calm, down-to-earth, almost shy person. Someone who makes things happen with a calm mind. Once he blurts out “shit,” it’s followed immediately by “oh, I’m sorry.”

Dimitri Krebs attends the world premiere at the Zurich Film Festival.Picture: www.imago-images.de

For Krebs, even more difficult than the sex scenes with Luna Wedler were his character's emotional outbursts: “It was completely against my nature. I've never done that, grumpy, big Yelling, especially in front of so many people on set.” But he learned something important while making the movie (“a completely crazy thing, actually”): how to deal with pressure. “When you need to give yourself five minutes, you have to be proactive and express it. Even if there are a hundred people waiting on the set, the cost may be 2,000 francs. Of course you don't dare to do that at the beginning.”

Not sure if he wants to remain a public figure

How do introverts feel in this exposed profession? Will we see more of him on screen in the future? Krebs said he would listen to requests but would not proactively seek anything. Now he is a “traitor” public figure. He hasn't decided yet whether he wants to stay: “I like my privacy, and if I had to read things about myself in the paper that had nothing to do with the movie, I wouldn't think it would be that cool.”

And as a member of a generation that has never heard of a traitor, what does he think this movie is about? His eyes sparkle when he talks about the topic: “I hope people will realize again that Switzerland is not so rich just because money grows under our soil. We care very much about our image, and so many dirty Dirty business is carried out under the guise of neutrality. Just as Ernst Schrämli was a difficult figure, Switzerland is also a deeply contradictory country.”

“Traitor” is now playing in theaters.

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