Commissioner Lucas - Without a trace

Episode in the series Commissioner Lucas
Original title	Without a trace
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
length	89 minutes
classification	Episode 12 ( list )
First broadcast	May 1, 2010 on ZDF
Rod
Director	Thomas Berger
script	Thomas Berger
production	Molly von Fürstenberg ; Harry Kügler for Olga Film
music	Johannes Kobilke
camera	Gunnar foot
cut	Monika Abspacher
occupation
	Ulrike Kriener : Ellen Lucas; Birge Schade : Christel Huber; Michael Fitz : Heinz Huber; Amelie Kiefer : Anna Huber; Anja Kling : Sylvia Hohenfeld; Mark Waschke : Jan Geissler; Andreas Schröders : Franz Kerner; Gabriel Raab : Ralph Remberg; Michael Roll : Boris Noethen, Head of Department; Florian Stetter : Leander Blohm; Inez Björg David : Julia Brandl; Alexander Lutz : Martin Schiff; Anke Engelke : Rike; Tilo Prückner : Max; Heinrich Schmieder : Klaus Hartmann;
chronology
← Predecessor ; Commissioner Lucas - Off the track	Successor → ; Commissioner Lucas - When everything falls apart

Without a trace is a ZDF film that is part of the series Kommissarin Lucas . Thomas Berger directed the television film broadcast in 2010. In her twelfth case, Commissioner Lucas ( Ulrike Kriener ) is confronted with the kidnapping of a young woman who was suspected of being held hostage in a café, but who has disappeared without a trace. The guest roles in this episode are Birge Schade , Michael Fitz and Amelie Kiefer as well as Anja Kling and Mark Waschke .

action

Chief Detective Ellen Lucas is called to a crime scene. Klaus Hartmann has holed up in a café, threatening the guests present. He not only struggles with his hopeless financial situation, for which he primarily blames the banks. The commissioner manages to get the situation under control quickly, so that Hartmann can be arrested shortly afterwards. After everyone has left the café, Christel Huber appears who is looking for her daughter Anna and should have been in the café. Your cell phone calls go unanswered. Anna actually had an appointment with her best friend Bella in the café, as this confirmed, but did not show up. Bella also says that Anna was planning to go on a trip with her new boyfriend. She also felt too patronized by her mother and was bothered by the fact that she cares so much about what people think of her.

Julia Brandl, Lucas' newly assigned colleague, learns from a farmer that he saw Anna get into a small red car. The officers do not rule out that her father Heinz had something to do with the kidnapping. Anna's former friend Ralph Remberg, with whom she is still in contact, is also considered. Allegedly he lost his cell phone. He works for the politician Jan Geissler as one of his campaign workers. The newspaper reports that Geissler and the renowned photographer Sylvia Hohenfeld announce their wedding. When Anna gets a copy of this newspaper leaked to her hiding place, which has been locked by the kidnapper, and reads the report, she tears up the page and cries.

The investigators also ask whether Remberg passed his cell phone on to Geissler so that he could keep in touch with the missing person in order to minimize his risk of it becoming known that he was having a relationship with Anna.

When father Huber is confronted with the suspicion that he may have wronged his own daughter, he is stunned. He says that he has a good relationship with Anna. He also stood by her two years ago during an abortion and knew that she had entered into a relationship with Geissler. Ms. Huber knew nothing of any of this. Anna had made her father promise not to tell her mother about it. Sylvia Hohenfeld, with whom Lucas is talking, also knew about her future husband's relationship.

At the same time Anna has to listen to a lecture from her kidnapper that people can get used to each other, that it is even possible to develop a love affair. It will be the same for both of them one day. She had to forget the "prettier" who didn't mean it well with her. Anna knows the man who kidnapped her, it is a neighbor, the pharmacy assistant Franz Kerner.

In the meantime, Lucas and her team are on the trail of the man who drives a blue car, as it turned out that an oncoming bus driver had observed exactly that. Under a pretext, the inspector and her colleague Leander Blohm gain access to Kerner's house, and Lucas also manages to let Julia Brandl into the house unnoticed so that she can look around. The result is negative, but an investigation shows that the DNA found by Brandl matches that on Anna's cell phone. While the Kerner house was being monitored, Mr. Huber intervened so that Kerner noticed that his house was being monitored. Then he frantically draws two syringes and goes to his prisoner.

When the investigators break into the house, they cannot find anything in the basement. Then, however, Lucas realizes that there must be a cavity behind a wall. Your search brings up a door. When they open it, they find Kerner, who is barely conscious, sitting on a bed. He keeps stammering that he loved Anna very much. Shortly afterwards he dies. He let Anna go. She sits on the bus and sends her parents a message on a cell phone they borrowed.

production

Production notes, publication

The film was shot without a trace from October 12 to December 17, 2009 in Regensburg and in Munich and the surrounding area.

Without a trace was first broadcast on May 1, 2010 during prime time on ZDF .

The episode was released on DVD by Studio Hamburg Enterprises on September 16, 2016, along with five other cases in the series.

Private matters of the commissioners

Ellen Lucas' sister Rike and her landlord Max go on a pilgrimage together . Lucas' supervisor, department head Boris Noethen, has problems and seems to be drinking, but doesn't want to talk to Ellen about it. It wasn't until some time later that he confided to her that he had severe problems with his ears, that too much or too little fluid was the cause, which meant that he could sometimes not stand on his feet for hours. When he asks Lucas whether she will get along with her new colleague Julia Brandl, she confirms with a smile.

reception

Audience rating

The film was watched by 6.87 million people when it was first broadcast on ZDF, with a market share of 22.9 percent.

criticism

Rainer Tittelbach of Tittelbach.tv was full of praise for the film and stated that , without a trace ' "highest crime claims" would stand. “The film by Thomas Berger [is] versatile, exciting and [captures] a lot of the living conditions and the atmosphere in and around the well-behaved town as you investigate by passing by. This' Lucas' episode was especially perfect in the way it dramaturgically binds the psychology of the characters []. "In conclusion, it was said:" The common strength of Ellen Lucas, author-director Thomas Berger and the series' Kommissarin Lucas 'is that they take language seriously as a tool and that the dialogues are more than just lip service. The dramaturgical logistics of the films are always based on the thinking and the attitude of the heroine. This applies in particular to 'Without a Trace': It is a masterpiece of interaction. And the viewer is not forgotten either: wonderful scenes release him from the film with a happy sigh. "

Also Kino.de praised the series and found that they were "an excellent example [is] how to stories on different levels tell [s]". On the one hand, there is the "ongoing framework in which the main character develops barely noticeably"; on the other hand, there is "the confrontation with specific challenges, with crime novels naturally the cases to be solved".

Harald Suerland from the Westfälische Nachrichten said that the tension had persisted and that "Ulrike Kriener's multifaceted Commissioner Lucas and her cases [...] could be relied on as well as her wonderfully heterogeneous team, including her new colleague." the critic that for Lucas' sister Rike (Anke Engelke) and annoying Max (Tilo Prückner) only a tiny supporting role remained this time.

"[...] Once again, the province and family abysses merge into an ominous unity and form the background for another crime series with Bavarian local flavor."

- Lexicon of international film