Lotte Jäger and the dead girl

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Episode of the Lotte Jäger series
Original title Lotte Jäger and the dead girl
Country of production Germany
original language German
length 90 minutes
classification Episode 1 ( list )
First broadcast September 12, 2016 on ZDF
Rod
Director Sherry Hormann
script Rolf Basedow ,
Ralf Zöller
production Joachim Kosack
music Fabian Römer
camera Hanno Lentz
cut Sandy Saffeels
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
Lotte Jäger and the dead in the village

Lotte Jäger und das tote Mädchen is a German TV film by Sherry Hormann from 2016 , which was produced on behalf of ZDF . The title role is occupied by Silke Bodenbender . Anna Maria Mühe , Andreas Schmidt-Schaller , Sebastian Hülk , Robert Hunger-Bühler and Marie Gruber play leading roles . In the opening credits of the film it says: "Inspired by real events."

Another film with Lotte Jäger was broadcast on ZDF in September 2018 under the title Lotte Jäger und die Tote im Dorf .

action

August 24, 1988 Schorfheide , Brandenburg : A young girl runs through the forest. A large number of hunters with dogs are also on the way. The young woman keeps looking around. Men fire shots from various high seats. A young man appears, it was probably he who was chasing the girl, they both sink into the grass and kiss.

Ewald Hassel is the new hunting king. The hunting party celebrates him and himself, while a large number of shot animals lie spread out on hedge in front of the Hubertusstock hunting lodge. The men are served by Sonja Platschek and Birgit Wachowiak, the young woman who had previously run through the forest. Some time later, Birgit Wachowiak lies dead in the forest.

27 years later: A man obviously recognizes someone on the subway. When the man leaves the subway, he follows him. All of a sudden he falls down the stairs, blood dripping from his ear. The cell phone rings with Chief Inspector Lotto Jäger, her colleague Detective Inspector Wehlich informs her that a certain Jörg Teschke at the Alexanderplatz subway station fell down the stairs for inexplicable reasons - the cause is unclear. The man is in an artificial coma .

When they meet, he explains to Jäger that Teschke had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988 for the murder of his girlfriend Birgit Wachowiak. However, according to his wife, whom he married about three years ago, he was innocent. 27 years later, yesterday, he came across exactly the man who, in his opinion, is the real murderer of Birgit Wachowiak. The officials learn from Teschke's wife that her husband had been persuaded to confess to the crime, but that he later revoked it. After his release from prison, he tried again and again to find the killer, but met with silence and rejection everywhere. Then she points to a man who is shown in a picture together with Birgit Wachowiak and members of the hunting party. Birgit got into his car with him. But nobody believed him. On the evening when the murder happened, her husband wanted to see Birgit, but she left him and got into the car with this man. He never found out the man's name. Even after reunification, he had to serve his 15-year sentence to the end.

Lotte Jäger learns from the investigator Kranz, who at the time was the first to deal with the Wachowiak case, that the world had collapsed for Teschke back then, as if someone had pulled the plug. The case was then taken over by the Stasi . He thinks a murderer was needed. Jäger's colleague Kurt Schaake has since found Birgit's mother's address. She refers to her daughter Sonja Platschek's girlfriend at the time and suggests that it is known that the "high animals" had fun with the women there. A first conversation with Platschek leads nowhere. In a further conversation with the young woman, Jäger learns from her that she and Birgit “slipped into it”. She also admits that Wachowiak was picked up that evening by a certain Herbert Brasch. She persuaded Biggi to take part because most of the time the men were way too drunk for anything to happen and if they did, so what. That night there was a lot going on. She doesn't know what happened to Biggi. She last saw them down by the lake after everyone had gone down to the boathouse. Biggi sat at a Wessi and then suddenly disappeared. She didn't know names, the men hadn't introduced themselves.

A conversation with Herbert Brasch no longer takes place because he hangs dead in his apartment. He had terminal cancer. From Noack, a friend of Brasch's, who, as he says, now wants to clear the table, Lotte Jäger learns that Brasch pushed Teschke and that Brasch and he only got rid of the already dead Birgit Wachowiak. They only did what was asked of them. He can still remember Wessie's name: Ewald Hassel. When Lotte Jäger visits the man in his luxurious property, she learns from a nurse that Hassel is at the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Hassel hands Jäger documents with which he has secured himself. These refer to a man named Weigel, who worked in a senior position in the Foreign Trade Ministry during the GDR era, now an influential entrepreneur with several domiciles and well connected. He is ready to testify in the presence of his lawyer. The drunken Hassel was placed next to the dead woman and let him wake up there so that he believed he was to blame for the girl's death. This made him useful for the system and open to blackmail. It was only about having an important business partner in hand. Wachowiak slipped under the influence of alcohol in the bathroom, which is proven by the surveillance video at the time.

When Jäger shows the recording to Jörg Teschke, who has woken up from the coma for a long time, he assures her that the woman in the picture is not Birgit Wachowiak. He knows her every move. The key lies with Sonja Platschek. She was jealous of Wachowiak's relationship with Teschke and was afraid of losing it. The women were linked by a love affair. She pulled her friend's hair in the bathroom and then pushed her so unhappily that Wachowiak's head hit the sink and fell to the floor, bleeding. For tactical reasons she was told that they wanted to help her, whereupon she made herself available for a recording as Birgit Wachowiak. She wasn't told what it really was about.

production

Filming, background

Hunting lodge Hubertusstock, one of the locations of the film

Lotte Jäger and the dead girl was filmed from July 7th to August 7th, 2015 in Berlin and the surrounding area, including on the area of ​​the former Hubertusstock hunting lodge . UFA Fiction was responsible for the film .

The film is preceded by the following words from Lotte Jäger, who rolls up old, unsolved murder cases from a small cellar office in Potsdam: “I am Lotte Jäger. After twelve years of homicide, I couldn't see any more dead. I'm not the only one who feels this way, mostly the men can't take it - women are tougher. Not me. I inherited my mother's old house in Potsdam. My husband Uwe is a musician. Our offices are in the basement. There are three of us, actually only two, our boss has been on sick leave for a long time. My colleague Schaake finds everything when it's in the files. Our department is called SE 12, SE stands for special investigation. What is meant are unsolved murders. "

Sherry Hormann commented on the figure of Lotte Jäger that at first glance she appeared to be lazy and naive, but would strike when she could be sure. Hunters create facts by simply listening. This listening is the real quality of the character. Regarding the casting of the roles, Hormann pointed out that the approach had been to cast the characters from the former GDR with actresses from the former GDR and the characters from the West with actors from the former West Germany. In this way, all actors could have brought in their experience, their experiences that they would have missed, also with quotations from their own story.

Silke Bodenbender said about her character: “ Lotte Jäger is a sympathetic, headstrong officer with a hippie soul. She can fully engage with people and their surroundings and thus makes them open up to her. She overcomes distance and manages to see past events through the eyes of others. When she is sure, she strikes with a certain nonchalance. In addition to all the cheerful serenity, there is also a sudden, quick-tempered temper slumbering in her, which in the first case can be more easily guessed. "

The ZDF emphasized that in the “realistic film”, which “due to the flashbacks also depicts a journey back in time to the GDR”, “the fate of the victims is more in focus” than that of the perpetrator.

Heard in the soundtrack

publication

The film was first broadcast on ZDF on September 12, 2016. On March 9, 2017, it was performed at the television crime festival in Wiesbaden.

Lotte Jäger und das tote Mädchen was released on DVD by Studio Hamburg Enterprises on March 8, 2019 , together with the follow-up film Lotte Jäger und die Tote im Dorf .

reception

Audience rating

When it was first broadcast, the film reached 5.11 million viewers, which corresponded to a market share of 18 percent.

criticism

The critics of the television magazine TV Spielfilm summed it up with praise: "Sensitive heroine, dazzling twist - great!" It was also said that the authors Rolf Basedow and Ralf Zöller had "brought the GDR hunting and drinking society to life in great detail" in flashbacks. Director Hormann "confidently changes the time levels, the east-west ensemble" plays "superbly" and finally: "Please more of it!" The film received the best possible rating by showing the thumbs up. There was one of three possible points for humor, and two for both demands and tension.

Rainer Tittelbach dealt with the film on his page tittelbach.tv , which he gave five out of six possible stars. This reminds "in its structure something of Sperling ", which is perhaps "due to the three-time Grimme Prize winner Rolf Basedow", "who researched and wrote the story of the hunted hustle and bustle in the GDR bigwigs dump, the Hubertusstock hunting lodge". Tittelbach praised: "The dialog-rich and yet sensual-airy crime thriller with a very erotic heroine is extremely clever in terms of dramaturgy, psychology of perception and cinematography." The critic said the crime thriller takes its time, the character introduces itself, the story is slowly building up, you can feel that “professionals were at work” here. "It is not for nothing that I remember the heroine personally introducing the viewer to the legendary 'Sperling' crime novels." Both "dramaturgically" and "perceptually psychologically" this debut by Lotte Jäger is a "very skilful affair". “Cinematically”, the author has found “his master” in director Sherry Hormann. Hormann, on the other hand, lives “mainly from Sandy Saffeel's montage, which together with Silke Bodenbender, who has not been seen as attractive for a long time”, is “the engine of the film”.

Hannah Bethke commented on the film in the Frankfurter Allgemeine . "The charisma of the figure" of Lotte Jäger is "like the atmosphere in her garden". “Nothing” is “falsified, nothing too much or too little. Silke Bodenbender plays her role naturally and credibly down to the last detail ”. "Lotte Jäger" is "different from the inspectors you usually know from television". She embodies “nothing cold”, but appears “rather turned and calm, without letting the handle be taken out of her hand”. It is "the opposite pole to the abysses that reveal themselves in this story: the unscrupulous hunting society, the immoderate greed of the old, dead-drunk men who assault two young women, the whole party felt, the cover-ups, power and corruption, the real socialism from its worst side ”. What it means “to be broken by men of such kind is reflected in the friend of the dead, whom Anna Maria Mühe excels at”. The film is touching and stirring, it captivates with the power of the images, the coherent atmosphere and the consistently strong cast. "The brilliant appearance of Marie Gruber in the role of the serene mother of the dead" shows that "even the work for the supporting roles has not been saved".

The film service also praised the film and came to the conclusion: “(TV) crime drama told in artfully composed flashbacks about an interesting investigator, her character depths and breaks. Off-screen comments give the film a slightly laconic note. - From 14. "

Tilmann P. Gangloff gave a rating of the film on the website evangelisch.de . The critic wrote that the opening sequence of the film was deceiving because Hormann only used the “thriller elements at the beginning” of the film, that “from now on” “Lotte Jäger and the dead girl” was “a calm and matter-of-fact film in which the heroine one after the other all involved ”. “That doesn't change the quality of the film.” The “appeal of the plot” lies “on the one hand in the connection between the present and the past, and on the other hand, of course, in the question of what really happened back then” and “what role the various participants played played ”. One of the “show values ​​of the film” is “in addition to the well-selected actors (including Anna Maria Mühe, Andres Schmidt-Schaller, Robert Hunger-Bühler and Marie Gruber) the location”. Even if the film “clearly changes its aggregate state after the brisk prologue” and turns “into a classic crime thriller”, it remains “worth seeing” thanks to Silke Bodenbender, who provides the investigator with a lot of freshness, curiosity and joie de vivre. Hormann's refusal to let Anna Maria Mühe “age” in her role is somewhat “disturbing”. Although she now has short hair, otherwise “the 27 years have passed her by without a trace”.

In the Hamburger Abendblatt it was said that Lotte Jäger uncovered “a perfidious network of political involvement in the Stasi, personal dependencies and rejected love”. Director Hormann and the authors Basedow and Zoller took the viewer “deep into the GDR past, in which the people involved in the plot were entangled in mutual dependencies and clusters”. In addition to the original locations and props, the fact that the East characters were cast with actors from the West and the West characters with actors from the West also contributed to a “unique atmosphere and credibility”. All roles, no matter how small, are “exquisitely cast” with actors who are “really convincing”.

Christian Buss commented on the film at Spiegel Online and wrote that “the network of dependencies that existed at the time of the GDR twilight between SED bigwigs and allies from brother states” was gradually becoming apparent. The dialogues in the “contemporary story thriller” are “tough, but not cynical”. In 'Lotte Jäger', director Hormann now shows “on the one hand, shuddering with relish driven hunt and brethren booze on Honecker's property - motto: 'What we cannot shoot, we drown' - and on the other hand she develops the portrait of a woman who finds herself in the wrong Promises of the past "got caught." “One of the strongest moments in the film are the dialogues between Bodenbender's superintendent and Mühle's ex-prostitute. Systematic destruction, systematic destruction - here history is condensed into a woman’s fate, ”continued Buß.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Rainer Tittelbach : Series “Lotte Jäger and the dead girl”. Hormann, Basedow, Bodenbender: Now the beautiful blonde also has an official badge, see page tittelbach.tv. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  2. ↑ Lotte Jäger and the dead girl at crew united
  3. ↑ a b Lotte Jäger and the dead girl In: Hamburger Abendblatt, September 12, 2016. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  4. ↑ Lotte Jäger and the dead girl see page zdf.de
  5. ↑ Lotte Jäger and the dead girl at filmportal.de
  6. ↑ Lotte Jäger and the dead girl / and the dead girl in the village Fig. DVD case (in the picture Sebastian Hülk, Silke Bodenbender)
  7. ↑ "Lotte Jäger and the dead girl". Silke Bodenbender dives into the world of the GDR hunting societies
    cf. tvspielfilm.de. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  8. ↑ Hannah Bethke: How do I hunt down the hunting party? In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 12, 2016.
    Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  9. ↑ Lotte Jäger and the dead girl. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 22, 2020 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  10. ^ Tilmann P. Gangloff : TV tip: “Lotte Jäger and the dead girl” (ZDF) on the evangelisch.de page, September 12, 2016. Accessed November 25, 2019.
  11. ↑ Christian Buß: GDR crime. Acquired for the Arbeiter- und Bauern-Staat In: Spiegel Online, September 12, 2016. Retrieved November 25, 2019.