Matto regiert (1980)

The director is found dead in the machine room of the Randlingen sanatorium. Accident or murder? Constable Studer of the Bernese cantonal police takes up the investigation, but in a sanatorium this proves to be a difficult undertaking. Matto rules here. "Matto is Italian and means crazy," head doctor Laduner explains to the constable with an opaque expression. Studer, however, does not let himself be distracted. Patiently and attentively, he penetrates Matto's realm. He talks to doctors and patients, nurses and office staff, he roams through the buildings searching. It soon becomes clear to him that there are strange conditions in the institution. A patient has disappeared who once committed a murder. There are rumors of strikingly frequent deaths in one ward, the head doctor is accused of more than dubious treatment methods and the deceased director is said to have had an affair with a female nurse. And then a considerable sum of money is stolen and a nurse throws himself out of a window. Wherever Studer turns, abysses open up before him: the dark canyons of Matto's empire.