A strong team: the praying mantis

Episode in the series A strong team
Original title	The praying mantis
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Production company	UFA
length	90 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
classification	Episode 51 ( List )
First broadcast	January 18, 2012 on ZDFneo
Rod
Director	Markus Imboden
script	Maris Pfeiffer , Regina Spreer
production	Norbert Sauer
music	Annette Focks
camera	Rainer Klausmann
cut	Ursula Höf
occupation
Maja Maranow : Verena Berthold Florian Martens : Otto Garber Arnfried Lerche : Lothar Reddemann Kai Lentrodt : Ben Kolberg Jaecki Schwarz : Sputnik Robert Seethaler : Dr. Armin Kneissler, forensic doctor Ursina Lardi : Annette Mikoladse Merab Ninidze : Tamas Mikoladze Michelle Barthel : Laura Mikoladse Carolyn Genzkow : Alexa Nele Mueller-Stöfen : Katharina Rohloff Isabell Gerschke : Miriam Weiss Henriette Nagel : Hanna Natascha Lawiszus : Rosina François Goeske : Jannick Siebert Barbara Philipp : Dr. Gerschke Stefanie Poljakoff : Lilli Matthias Lier : Tobias Rohloff Julischka Eichel : Alexander Klages : Dirk Kretschmar Kerstin Römer :
chronology
←  Predecessor Merciless Successor  → One dead too many

The praying mantis is a German television film by Markus Imboden from 2012. It is the 51st episode of the crime series A strong team with Maja Maranow and Florian Martens in the leading roles.

action

Miriam Weiss, a young attractive teacher, is found dead in the toilet of a Berlin comprehensive school. Someone took her purse with her asthma spray so that she did not have the essential medicine on hand when she suffered an attack.

After initial research by Chief Detective Verena Berthold and colleague Otto Garber, the student Laura comes under suspicion, whose parents have separated because the father had a relationship with the teacher, which is why Laura was extremely angry with Miriam Weiss. After the forensic examination, it was also found that the teacher was pregnant.

Among the students, the teacher was known as The Praying Mantis due to her sexual practices. After analyzing her emails, she is in close contact with Tobias Rohloff, a work colleague whose sister works at the school where the victim was also employed and who suffers from the separation from Miriam Weiss and has had psychological problems since then. But the former student Jannick Siebert also had an intimate relationship with the victim until the end. For Laura's father, this could have been a reason for jealousy, but he claims to have known nothing about this relationship.

Laura and her classmates Alexa, Hanna and Rosina are among those who last saw the victim, so they are also questioned urgently. When investigator Ben Kolberg finds a cell phone video on the Internet that shows how the girls beat their teacher and drive her through the school building so that she takes refuge in the toilet, they too are counted among the suspects.

Verena Berthold, however, is convinced that Laura was complicit, but did not kill her teacher. The Commissioner can prove that at the end of her mother. She had gone into the school building that afternoon because she wanted to see the woman her husband had left her for. She found it lying on the floor in the girls' toilet after an asthma attack and hadn't helped her, but instead took the bag with the spray and threw it away.

background

The praying mantis was filmed in Berlin and first broadcast on January 18, 2012 at 8:15 p.m. on ZDFneo .

Sputnik , whose role as a businessman in the series is designed as a running gag , opens an online dating service for customers from Russia.

criticism

Rainer Tittelbach from tittelbach.tv said: “'The praying mantis' by Markus Imboden from the series' The strong team' has so many suspects that in the meantime you don't even ask who the investigation is focused on and which characters are only ' Filler material 'for the crime story. […] As overconstructed as the plot may be, the film is a well-acted […] Saturday thriller that doesn't 'work through' its suspects one after the other, but keeps them side by side for a long time. ”Conclusion:“ Well staged, convincingly played , a bit over-engineered, but entertaining! "

The critics of the TV magazine TV Spielfilm gave the best rating (thumbs up) and said: “What looks like a bullying case turns out to be a tricky drama, the focus of which is the victim's love affairs. For the densely staged case, Verena's psychological instinct is required, Otto is mostly absent today due to acute infatuation. "Conclusion:" A strong duo even with half the strength. "

Web links

• A strong team: The mantis in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The praying mantis at fernsehserien.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rainer Tittelbach : Maranow, Martens, Barthel, Lardi, Minidze, Imboden and a capital Whodunit film review at tittelbach.tv, accessed on February 19, 2016.
2. ↑ A strong team: The praying mantis on TV Spielfilm , accessed on December 5, 2016.