Dark Paradise (2019)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
Original title The dark paradise
Country of production Austria
original language German
Publishing year 2019
length 90 minutes
Rod
Director Catalina Molina
script Sarah Wassermair
Catalina Molina
production Jakob Pochlatko ,
Dieter Pochlatko
music Patrik Lerchmüller
camera Klemens Hufnagl
cut Julia Drack
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
roller coaster

Successor  →
Steirerkreuz

The dark paradise is an Austrian television film from the country crime film series from 2019 by Catalina Molina with Manuel Rubey and Stefanie Reinsperger in the leading roles. After Drachenjungfrau (2016), this is the second case with investigators Martin Merana and Franziska Heilmayr.

The premiere was on March 21, 2019 on the Diagonale . The film was shown at the Biberach Film Festival at the end of October 2019 . The first broadcast on ORF took place on December 10, 2019. The film was first shown on ZDF on August 24, 2020.

action

In Zell am See the body of the call girl Irene is found on the shores of Lake Zell . The first suspicion falls on Roland Teichtner, a former junkie who was also violent, has no alibi and was probably the last to see the dead woman alive. Roland lives as a single parent with his little daughter Mia and his sister Anni in a boathouse and tries to get back on his feet after a few strokes of fate. Roland worked as a driver at Irene's Serenissima agency , the agency manager is the well-connected Beate Rottner.

However, post commander Franziska Heilmayr from Krimml cannot imagine that Roland is a murderer, especially since Heilmayr has a relationship with Roland's sister Anni. At Anni's request, Heilmayr begins to determine on his own what the chief detective, her old friend Martin Merana, displeases. Heilmayr is in a private crisis. Your parents want grandchildren and a husband for her daughter, Franziska, however it initially fails to myself from her conservative family outing and to stand publicly to her friend.

Heilmayr learns from the concierge Leopold “Poidl” Mitterrupfner that work was being carried out in the hotel's server room on the day of the murder. She receives a USB stick from him that contains recordings from the surveillance cameras in the hotel. Heilmayr succeeds in getting Merana on her side. He realizes that the recordings have been tampered with. From the hotel director Hans Loacker you will find out the name of the hotel guest who checked into the hotel under the pseudonym Humphrey Bogart and was not questioned. This is Khaleed ibn Hamza, a businessman from Saudi Arabia whose family is internationally networked. Khaleed claims to have been in a video conference with business partners at the time of the crime; the conversation was recorded.

Roland tells investigators that he sold Irene drugs. Irene was then picked up by a black BMW 7 Series . The investigators find out the license plate of the vehicle via surveillance recordings. After Roland, who was in custody, was threatened that something might happen to his daughter Mia, he made a confession. Heilmayr does not believe him at first, but Roland has knowledge of the perpetrators . Anni suspects that someone could have slipped him this. Heilmayr assumes that Roland wants to protect his daughter with it. She learns from prison guard Ankerl that he briefly had a cellmate and suspects that Roland was blackmailed.

Heilmayr receives a tip from Poidl about another hotel guest who was not questioned. Heilmayr breaks into the villa of the Serenissima agency, where Merana recognizes an employee of the Foreign Ministry. Benoit, head of a Belgian delegation that was negotiating a Deltacom pipeline project in Zell am See, is an acquaintance of the prosecutor Bernsteiner. Benoit was absent from the trial in the days following Irene's murder. Heilmayr and Merana threaten Bernsteiner with going to the press with the information they have collected if the proceedings against Roland are not closed. Roland is subsequently released. Franziska makes Anni a marriage proposal, which she accepts. The television news reports on the positive outcome of the Deltacom negotiations.

production

One of the locations: Zell am See

The shooting took place from October 15 to November 15, 2018, and the shooting took place in Salzburg and Lower Austria . In addition to Zell am See , the location was also Sankt Pölten , where interior shots were taken.

The film was produced by Epo-Film , Austrian radio and ZDF were involved, and the production was supported by the Austrian Television Fund and the State of Salzburg .

Theresa Kopf was responsible for the costume design, Verena Eichtinger and Sam Dopona for the make-up, Klaus Kellermann for the sound and Katharina Haring and Nina Salak for the production design. For director Catalina Molina , this was the second country thriller after the Maiden of the Dragon (2016).

reception

Reviews

Lukas Luger described the film in the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten as “solid crime fiction with potential upwards” and found that the verbal skirmishes between the two investigators were the particular strength of this crime fiction. The plot, on the other hand, would be much less sophisticated than the teasing of the protagonists, the moments of surprise are few and far between. The excellent actor duo let the audience forget some length.

Tilmann P. Gangloff from tittelbach.tv found that this film would take a lot of time for the private problems of its female main character and that it was more drama than suspense. The film begins with a spectacular tracking shot and thus arouses expectations that are not consistently met. The main character would not become a classic identification figure. This can be regretted or welcomed as an example of a character's stubbornness and the long-missed diversity of film characters.

Wilfried Geldner wrote in the Weser Kurier that the critical homeland thriller tried to kill two birds with one stone. The two storylines are, each taken individually, a heavyweight and entangle each other a little awkward. Director Catalina Molina gives the protagonists a lot of free rein. However, Stefanie Reinsperger's and Andrea Wenzl's sometimes all too pathetic play would also become an unspoken strong plea for reason and tolerance. Everything else almost looks like a criminal ornament.

Katharina Zeckau said on NWZonline that the melancholic, slightly unsettling music and delicate female singing to spherical piano tones together with the images of the tracking shot across the lake developed a pull that the audience could hardly escape and that would last for the next hour and a half. Screenwriter Sarah Wassermair has developed a whole arsenal of exciting, cryptic, weird characters around the unusual main character Franziska Heilmayr. Stefanie Reinsperger's breathtakingly well-played, down-to-earth post commandant stands out from the crime monotony.

Klaus Braeuer ( dpa ) described the crime thriller as being staged in a rock-solid manner, there would be no big surprises. But at least some nice humor interludes between the two investigators. These would help to get over the story, which is not told in a refined way and unfortunately has a long length. The audience can follow the plot well and guess.

Torsten Wahl found in the Berliner Zeitung that country crime stories almost always had a certain something, were weird and surprising and often played with a political background. If politicians are portrayed as depraved and corrupt in German films, it quickly appears artificial and populist. In Austria, however, these allegations would be more or less standard: The scandal surrounding the Strache videos in Ibiza showed that the reality is sometimes even wackier than in the film. The dark paradise would initially be constructed conventionally. The figure of Franziska would remain credible at all times despite the woodcut-like conflict. The film also has a lot to offer visually, not only in the elegant entrance scene. Even if Franziska and her colleague Merana can solve the case, the resolution would be bitter.

Heike Hupertz wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the opening sequence was aesthetically playful and wanted to be spectacular at the same time. Neither in one way nor in the other does the film keep what this beginning promised. Over the drama, which Reinsperger and Wenzl play differently, the criminal case is temporarily almost completely out of sight. His explanation would be prayed down almost lovelessly. Two dramas are definitely one too many here. As a pure guessing thriller, the film is a disappointment. As a social test of lesbian love, the film stands out from the crime unit program.

Audience rating

The first broadcast on ORF on December 10, 2019 was followed by up to 678,000 and an average of 657,000 viewers, the market share was 22 percent and 19 percent for 12- to 49-year-olds.

In Germany, 4.86 million people saw the film when it was first broadcast; the market share was 16.9 percent.

Awards and nominations

The film was invited to the competition of the German TV Crime Festival in 2020 .

Romy Awards 2020

  • Award in the category Best Director TV Fiction (Catalina Molina)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Diagonal: The Dark Paradise . Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  2. ↑ The dark paradise. In: Biberacher Film Festival . Retrieved October 18, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Patricia Aulitzky investigates "The girl from the mountain lake". October 29, 2019, accessed October 30, 2019 .
  4. ↑ ORF premiere: LandKrimi: The dark paradise. In: ORF.at . Retrieved November 19, 2019 .
  5. ↑ The dark paradise. In: Wishlist.de . Retrieved July 14, 2020 .
  6. ↑ epo film: The Dark Paradise . Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  7. ↑ NÖN: St. Pölten: Klemens Hufnagl: “Good film grabs you mentally and emotionally” . Article dated March 3, 2019, accessed March 4, 2019.
  8. ↑ ZDF: Country crime thriller "The Dark Paradise" is a ZDF co-production . Article dated October 18, 2018, accessed March 7, 2019.
  9. ↑ The dark paradise at crew united . Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  10. ↑ Lukas Luger: Dark Paradise. In: Upper Austrian news . December 11, 2019, accessed December 12, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Tilmann P. Gangloff : Series "The Dark Paradise". In: tittelbach.tv . Retrieved August 17, 2020 .
  12. ^ Tilmann P. Gangloff: TV tip: "The dark paradise". In: evangelisch.de . August 24, 2020, accessed on August 24, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Tilmann P. Gangloff: "The Dark Paradise" (ZDF): Award-winning rural thriller disappoints high expectations. In: fr.de. August 24, 2020, accessed August 25, 2020 .
  14. ^ Wilfried Geldner: Murder in the Nobel Hotel. In: weser-kurier.de. August 17, 2020, accessed on August 17, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Katharina Zeckau: Franzi has to fix it again: "The dark paradise". In: NWZonline . August 22, 2020, accessed on August 23, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Klaus Braeuer: ZDF crime thriller "The Dark Paradise": Franzi has to fix it. In: dpa /queer.de. August 20, 2020, accessed on August 23, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Torsten Wahl: ZDF crime thriller: "The dark paradise": murder of a call girl. In: berliner-zeitung.de. August 23, 2020, accessed on August 23, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Heike Hupertz: “Landkrimi” on ZDF: Two dramas are one too many here. In: faz.net. August 24, 2020, accessed August 25, 2020 .
  19. ↑ "The Dark Paradise" with up to 678,000 viewers. December 11, 2019, accessed December 11, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Manuel Weis: "Hard but fair" wins over 700,000 viewers with Trump Talk. In : quotemeter.de . August 25, 2020, accessed August 25, 2020 .
  21. ^ Wiesbaden - Culture: The Competition Films of the 16th German TV Crime Festival 2020. In: Mittelrhein-tageblatt.de. January 23, 2020, accessed January 24, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Christoph Silber: ROMY Academy selects winners: androids, underworlders and drug dealers. In: Kurier.at . May 19, 2020, accessed May 19, 2020 .