Murder in the Bohemian Forest

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Television series
German title Murder in the Bohemian Forest
Original title Lynč
Country of production Czech Republic
original language Czech
year 2018
Production
company		 Česká televize , Arte
length 47 minutes
Episodes 8 in 1 season ( list )
genre Crime, drama
production Harold Apter
camera Tomas Juricek ,
Simon Todorov
First broadcast Oct. 22, 2018 on ČT1

First publication in German		 July 25, 2019 on Arte Mediathek
occupation
synchronization

Mord im Böhmerwald (original title: Lynč , in German: " Lynchjustiz ") is an 8-part, Czech television series from 2018 . It is about a documentary filmmaker's investigation into the murder of a Roma boy in a fictional small Czech town and discusses discrimination against Roma, illegal business and incest .

action

The Prague documentary filmmaker Lukás comes to the small Czech town of Buchnov, where he lived as a child, and would like to investigate the murder of the youth Denis Janecek, who was from a Roma family living there, four months ago and had not been fully investigated for a documentary film originates. However, he met with rejection from a number of people, including Denis' mother Marika and the doctor Vladimír Svoboda, father of the pregnant Helena and husband of the mayor Alena. Quite a few citizens, including the deputy mayor Stanislav Jokl, make no secret of their rejection of the Roma, which they often only refer to as gypsies . Stanislav's hostility to Roma, for example, influences his young son Zbynek so much that he urinates contemptuously on Denis' grave.

Lukás is particularly interested in what is going on on an old, dilapidated factory site, where the local pharmacist Magda Stránská apparently has medical goods handled illegally and where Denis' brother Tomás also helps out, as Denis did before. Lukás observes how barrels with chemicals are temporarily stored in a shed used by children to play with, and suspects a connection between what happened there and the murder. Therefore, he asked Jirka Kovác, who also worked there, who was regarded by townspeople as moronic and as Denis' murderer and - like Denis - he was known to be a playmate from childhood. Magda's nephew Pavel - who is also hostile to the Roma because of a crime committed against his mother - tries to disrupt Lukás' investigation and to prevent Jirka from providing information to Lukás. Since Jirka remains in contact with Lukás, Pavel murders Jirka, whose body he buries in the forest.

Helena reluctantly gives birth to her baby and initially refuses to take care of it. The reason for her negative behavior is that Vladimir conceived the baby against her will; With Helena's help he keeps this secret from the rest of his family and the public. Helena runs away from home, hides temporarily with Lukás and confides in him that she was not raped by Denis and that her father made her pregnant.

After Tomás has discovered that the chemicals are dangerous to health, he tries to break away from Pavel and Magda, but unsuccessfully because Pavel threatens him with violence. One night, Pavel forces him to dig a hole in the forest in order to discover Jirka's body and to blame him for the murder. After Lukás received a visit from Tomás and Helena in his accommodation, his hostess against Roma throws him out there. He therefore lives in Jirka's trailer near the factory site, where he watches further deliveries of the chemicals. As a result, he discovered that the barrels contained highly toxic thiodane , a pesticide , and reported this to the policeman Vojta Marek, who was unable to do much.

Meanwhile, Marika loses her school job after slapping Zbynek for his swearwords as a "gypsy bitch". At the same time, the two students who were playing with the barrels in the shed are seriously ill and are receiving medical treatment from Vladimir. One of them succumbs to his illness. After Tomás learned of this death, he informs Lukás and separately also Pavel about the connection with the chemicals. Lukás then installed three hidden digital cameras on the factory premises and remotely monitors what is happening there.

After the boys become ill, Magda wants her two German business partners to stop the pesticide deliveries and visits them in Germany. Since the two do not agree, they enforce the delivery of the new barrels by force of arms. Secretly filmed by Lukás, they shoot Pavel and the van driver who was previously injured by Pavel. Tomás manages to escape. The Germans then also want to liquidate Tomás so as not to leave any witnesses. In order to find out his identity, they torture Magda, who is tied up on the factory premises. To destroy evidence, they explode the shed, including the barrels, the corpses and the delivery truck, and set the remaining rooms on fire. The detonation is noticed throughout the city, whereupon the rescue workers can move in and rescue Magda seriously injured. Meanwhile, Helena tries unsuccessfully to inform her mother that Vladimir is the father of her baby.

In flashbacks to events before Denis' death, Jirka overhears a conversation between Helena and Denis in which she asks him for the favor of pretending to be the father of the unborn baby that Vladimir conceived. Jirka now wrongly believes that the pregnancy resulted from a rape of Helena by Denis, and tells Pavel this. One evening Jirka and Pavel join Stanislav and Vladimir's table in a full restaurant, while Helena and Denis are sitting at a neighboring table and loudly express their displeasure with the alleged rapist Denis, combined with resentment against gypsies. Expressing Vladimir's uncontested allegation of raping Helena, she and most of the other guests follow Denis outside into the market square. There, in front of the other restaurant visitors, he is lynched to death by Jirka and Pavel with kicks, blows and finally hanging , without any of them helping him. When Tomás reaches the scene of the crime, Magda prevents him from approaching his brother.

Lukás is currently handing over the video recordings to Vojta and despite further interrogations in front of the camera, he cannot identify Denis' killer. Helena and her father continue to keep the secret that the child does not come from Denis.

Emergence

The series was the result of a collaboration between Czech Television and the Prague Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts . Under the guidance of the American Harold Apter , students had developed ten pilot episodes for television series projects, from which Mord im Böhmerwald ultimately emerged as the winner. Apter, experienced as a screenwriter on series such as The Sentinel - In the Eye of the Hunter and Walker, Texas Ranger , acted as showrunner here and supervised six young, Czech writers while writing the scripts.

Cast and voice actor

The German dubbed version was created by Christa Kistner Synchronproduktion under the dialogue direction by Rainer Martens and with the dialogue book by Carsten Bengelsdorf .

actor Role name German Voice actor role
Matej Andel Lukás Zemlicka Jannik Endemann Documentary filmmaker, childhood friend of Jirka Kovác
Barbora Kodetová Alena Svobodová Claudia Galdy Mayoress of Buchnov, wife of Vladimír Svoboda, mother of Helena and Honzík
Jan Cina Denis Janecek Son of Marika Janecková, brother of Tomás Janecek
Zuzana Stivínová Magda Stránská Pharmacist, Pavel's aunt
Janek Gregor Pavel Stransky Ricardo Richter Nephew and vicarious agent of Magda Stránská
Jirí Dvorák Stanislav Jokl Deputy Mayor of Buchnov
Jiri Roskot Jirka Kovác Patrick Baehr Lukás Zemlicka's childhood friend
Marcel Bendig Tomás Janecek Sebastian Fitzner Son of Marika Janecková, brother of Denis Janecek
Marek Nemec Vojta Marek police officer
Natálie Topinková Marika Janecková Mother of Denis and Tomás Janecek
Pavel Cerný Honzík Svoboda Son of Alena and Vladimír, brother of Helena
Pavel Kříž Dr. Vladimír Svoboda Bernd Vollbrecht Practicing doctor, husband of Alena Svobodová, father of Helena and Honzík
Stepánka Fingerhutová Helena Svobodová Maximiliane Häcke Friends of Denis and Jirka, daughter of Alena and Vladimir
Tereza Vilisová Líba Joklová Wife of Stanislav Jokl
Tobias Rimsky Zbynek Jokl Son of Stanislav and Líba
Lucia Siposová Petra Aunt of Denis and Tomás

publication

The Czech public television broadcaster ČT1 first broadcast the series on a weekly basis from October 22, 2018. Arte broadcast the series in German on August 1 and 8, 2019, each with four episodes. Starting a week before these dates, the episodes were available for streaming in the Arte media library .

Episode list

No. German title Original title First broadcast
( ČT1 )
First publication in German
( Arte media library)
1 Welcome to Buchnov Vítejte v Buchnově Oct. 22, 2018 July 25, 2019
2 Without respect Neúcta Oct 29, 2018 July 25, 2019
3 God's will Vůle boží 0Nov 5, 2018 July 25, 2019
4th The family first Rodina na prvním místě Nov 12, 2018 July 25, 2019
5 My father's son Syn mého otce 19 Nov 2018 0Aug 1, 2019
6th Dangerous business Špína Nov 26, 2018 0Aug 1, 2019
7th liquidation Likvidace zásob 03 Dec 2018 0Aug 1, 2019
8th Truths Pravda 10 Dec 2018 0Aug 1, 2019

reception

Critics understood the story told as an image of the current social conditions in the Czech Republic and in this context as a “portrait of a torn society”, as a narrative “of the growing political and social division” in the country and about racism .

The series was praised several times as exciting. Clara Lipkowski said appreciatively in the Süddeutsche Zeitung that she convinced “with a relentless look at the people”. However, there are too many storylines, not all of which are "coherently brought together" in the end. Heike Hupertz named the series in the FAZ "one of the most important fictional television events" of 2019, also because of the "highly concentrated image design". When portraying the Germans as criminals, however, they save themselves on the "fragile terrain of absurd exaggeration close to satire". In the TV magazine prisma it was said that the series unfolded "into a fascinating psychogram of a small town", "which also goes far beyond murder."

There was negative criticism of the German title Mord im Böhmerwald , it was criticized as too unspecific.

More reviews:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Series: Mord im Böhmerwald , in: Film-Dienst from July 19, 2019, accessed on August 18, 2019
  2. ↑ a b c d e Heike Hupertz: Tschechiens Volkszorn , in: FAZ from August 1, 2019, accessed on August 18, 2019
  3. ↑ a b Jens Müller: Living with Racists in the Czech Republic , in: TAZ from August 1, 2019, accessed on August 18, 2019
  4. ↑ a b Information taken from the end credits of the German version of the episodes in the Arte media library, August 2019.
  5. ↑ a b c Clara Lipkowski: A city is not looking for a murderer , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung from August 1, 2019, accessed on August 27, 2019
  6. ^ Julian Weinberger: "Mord im Böhmerwald": Psychogram of a small town , in: prisma