M - A City Is Looking For A Killer (TV Series)

Television series
Original title	M - A city is looking for a murderer
Country of production	Austria
original language	German
year	2019
Production ; company	Super movie
length	45 minutes
Episodes	6 in 1 season
genre	Thriller
Director	David Schalko
script	Evi Romen , ; David Schalko
production	John Lueftner , ; David Schalko
music	Dorit Chrysler
camera	Martin Gschlacht
First broadcast	February 17, 2019 on ORF eins
occupation
	Sarah Viktoria Frick : Commissioner; Christian Dolezal : Commissioner; Lore Niklas : Feli, daughter of the inspector; Gerhard Liebmann : M; Verena Altenberger : Mother Elsie; Lars Eidinger : Father Elsie; Moritz Bleibtreu : Publisher; Dominik Maringer : Minister of the Interior; Julia Stemberger : Psychologist; Bela B : Pale man; Michael Fuith : Teacher; Udo Kier : Fox fur man; Christoph Krutzler : The red one; Johanna Orsini-Rosenberg : Chief of Police; André Pohl : Candy seller; Sophie Rois : The wild one; Gabriel Barylli : Profiler; Brigitte Hobmeier : ex-wife inspector; Juergen Maurer : Brother Commissioner; Marleen Lohse : Saleswoman; Sonja Romei : forensic scientist; David Miesmer : Editor; Andreas Patton : husband of the psychologist; Lisa-Lena Tritscher : The whore; Murathan Muslu : Head of Operations; Barbara Horvath : nurse; Reinhold G. Moritz : patrol officer; Katharina Haudum : makeup artist; Martina Spitzer : Director; Stefko Hanushevsky : Father Coco; Thomas Clemens : Young doctor; Gabriela Hegedüs : Mother Cosima Bacher; Jeremy Miliker : Tamasz;

M - A city seeks a murderer is a six-part Austrian miniseries by David Schalko , who was also responsible for the script together with his wife Evi Romen .

The series is based on Fritz Lang's film M from 1931, with the plot being moved to Vienna in 2018. Sarah Viktoria Frick took on the role of investigator, originally played by Otto Wernicke . The cast include Lars Eidinger , Verena Altenberger , Sophie Rois , Moritz Bleibtreu , Udo Kier and Bela B .

The premiere took place on February 12, 2019 as part of the Berlinale Series in the Berlinale Special section at the 69th Berlinale . The series was broadcast for the first time in double episodes on February 17, 20 and 22, 2019 on ORF Eins . From February 23, the series was available online on the streaming site TVNOW .

action

The series takes place in snow-covered Vienna, where little by little more and more children disappear without a trace. Their bodies will not be found until later. The police are at a loss, and opportunistic politicians are blaming one another. The ambitious interior minister begins to use the series of murders for his own political ends. The tabloid media are additionally heating up the mood, fake news is being spread, people are being arbitrarily arrested.

The population is starting to rumble. As the situation becomes more tense, everyone becomes suspect. The underworld takes over the task of the police and goes in search of the child murderer so that everyone else can go about their dirty business undisturbed.

After the murder of little Tamasz, the minister imposed a curfew , which the population accepted without resistance. The savage, leader of the underworld, lures the murderer M with the child of Romanian beggars. Together they drive him into the Vienna sewer system , where they sit in judgment on him. M is finally handed over to the police.

Production and Background

The shooting took place from January 15 to April 20, 2018 in Vienna and the surrounding area. The production was supported by the Vienna Film Fund and the Austrian TV Fund, and Austrian Broadcasting and TVNOW were also involved . The series was produced by the Austrian Superfilm . A total of around 130 speaking roles were filled.

After there was not enough snow for the scenes in snow-covered Vienna, around 450 tons of artificial snow and snow cannons were used. With trucks weighing around 1,400 cubic meters of snow was of Lackenhof transported to Vienna.

Christoph Brunner was responsible for the editing, Alfred Mayerhofer for the costume design, Hubert Klausner and Hannes Salat for the production design , Odo Grötschnig for the sound and Sam Dopona for the makeup. The budget was 6.2 million euros.

On March 1, 2019, the series was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc .

music

Edvard Grieg : In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt Suite No. 1
David Lynch : Cold Wind Blowin
Dorit Chrysler : Animoso
Ajax: Jumpin
Krzysztof Komeda feat. Christiane Legrand : Le Départ
The Shangri-Las : Past, Present and Future

reception

Reviews

Hanns-Georg Rodek wrote in the daily newspaper Die Welt that Schalko's contribution to the Berlinale was far more than the remake of the classic with Peter Lorre , it was “the film on the state of the nation” : “Maringer's minister unites the youthfulness of the current Austrian chancellor, the demagogic arguments of its interior minister - and the sloppiness of a manager who seeks to run a country like a corporation. [...] To remake the classic 'M - A city seeks a murderer' is actually sacrilege . But David Schalko managed the impossible. The film tells of right-wing populism in an ingenious way . "

The daily newspaper Die Presse found that the horror at the child murders seemed understandable, especially after the rampant murder of women since the beginning of the year: “Lang's original story was expanded to include the refugee issue. And the interior minister, although long before the inauguration of the turquoise-blue government was occupied by Dominik Maringer , bears astonishing resemblance to European minister Gernot Blümel . "

Tilmann P. Gangloff said on tittelbach.tv that the biggest shortcoming was the erratic narrative. As a result, tension in the sense of a thrill would only arise in the last act, when the criminals rush the killer into the sewer system. Many figures try to be mysterious or look like caricatures due to their exaggerated representation.

Stefan Grissemann wrote in the magazine Profil that cameraman Martin Gschlacht creates strong images, while the story threatens to disintegrate in the anecdotal and there are horror and character clichés hailing: "You can call this story atmospheric for good reason, it is not exciting."

Tobias Sedlmaier described the series in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung as “politically professorial” , the portrayal of the governing coalition seems just as clumsy as its opponents like to scold it. The series is "aesthetically brilliant" , but it is frayed on a dramaturgical level. Nevertheless, she would join the ranks of ambitious German-language series productions such as Dark or Babylon Berlin .

“ Feschism , fake news, refugee policy: author and director Schalko uses them to create a murder hunt that does not submit to the rules of current TV series. Social realism interests him as little as psychological identification potential. Even the victim parents seem selfishly motivated in their grief. A country eats its children .... Absolutely worth seeing. ” - Der Spiegel | Christian Buss

“If Elfriede Jelinek and Thomas Bernhard had ever wanted to shoot a television series together, it could have been similar. Schalko succeeds in creating a piece of time supported by his ensemble, determined by the will to comment on the present and a pronounced will to form. ” - FAZ | Ursula Scheer

"A manipulative noise of the images and messages that doesn't make you so scary - and yet is much more dangerous than the whistling in the empty alley." - Der Tagesspiegel | Gunda Bartels

Audience ratings

episode	First broadcast Austria (ORF)	Spectators Austria
1	17th February 2019	652,000
2	17th February 2019	622,000
3	20th February 2019	371,000
4th	20th February 2019	375,000
5	February 22, 2019	377,000
6th	February 22, 2019	411,000