Off the trail - say you're sorry

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Episode in the series Beside the Track
Original title Say you are sorry
Country of production Germany
original language German
Production
company		 Network Movie
length 88 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
classification Episode 5 ( list )
German-language
first broadcast		 March 12, 2018 on ZDF
Rod
Director Thomas Roth
script Jürgen Werner
Mathias Klaschka
production Lydia-Maria Emrich
Jutta Lieck-Klenke
music Christoph Zirngibl
camera Moritz Schultheiss
cut Birgit Gasser
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
Next to the track - Your will be done

Beside the track - Say you're sorry is a German psychological thriller by director Thomas Roth from 2018 and the fifth part of the ZDF crime series Beside the track . The film is based on the novel Say You're Sorry by Australian bestselling author Michael Robotham and was shown for the first time on German television on March 12, 2018.

action

The Hamburg psychiatrist Dr. Johannes Jessen now lives separately from his wife Nora and wants to spend a week alone with their daughter Charlotte. On the drive to his apartment, he becomes aware of a police operation at the port of Hamburg , during which a body in water is apparently being recovered. Arriving at home, Inspector Vincent Ruiz is waiting for Jessen and asks for help with a double murder that occurred three days ago. Suspect is the mentally conspicuous Andreas Schaller, who claims that he only wanted to save the couple from the burning house. For Ruiz, knowing whether the man is acting or is actually mentally ill is what Jessen is supposed to find out. In conversation with Schaller, who is constantly talking to his imaginary “brother”, Jessen gets the impression that the suspect is telling the truth. He tells of a snowman and a woman like an angel with red feet, whom he saw in front of the house. Jessen is certain that the real perpetrator is capable of structured thinking, which is not the case with the schizophrenic Schaller. For the psychiatrist, his part of helping his friend Ruiz is finished and he has the policeman Gregor Römer bring him back to his apartment. From him he learns details about the body found on the Elbe. It is said to be one of the "Elbe girls" who disappeared two years ago. Tanja Bredesen and Pia Hansen had not returned home from a visit to a beach bar. Römer himself was part of the search team at the time and the school caretaker was initially suspected, but could neither prove the crime nor find the girls. Therefore, it was ultimately assumed that the two had only run away, which was confirmed by the statement of a friend of the two.

Although his daughter is waiting for him at home and Jessen is looking forward to spending time with her, the case does not leave him alone and he returns to the bureau. For him, the photos of the found Tanja Bredesen match the descriptions of Schaller, because she was wearing a white dress, so she must have looked like an angel with feet cut by glass that must have appeared freshly bleeding red. For Jessen, both cases are related and he is sure that Schaller saw the culprit, whom he described as a "snowman". Ruiz and his colleague Anna Bartholomé initially assume that the killed couple had held the girl prisoner and that she escaped them by jumping out of the window. Jessen sees it differently because of the traces left at the crime scene and says that Tanja Bredesen probably sought refuge in the house after she escaped her kidnapper. He pursued her, eliminated the two witnesses and, in the end, the girl as well.

When Jessen finally went home, his teenage daughter had meanwhile become “self-employed”. Calls to her cell phone go unanswered and, after it has already got dark, Jessen Ruiz asks for help. He can quickly locate Charlotte using her cell phone and finds her very drunk in a disco . His appearance actually prevents worse, because two young men had already set their sights on Charlotte and added knockout drops to their drink . So her father can make her not blame Ruiz Charlotte takes to his home and leaves them there, their noise to sleep. When her father again has no time for her the next day because he has to go to work and give lectures, Charlotte packs her things and drives back to her mother. After the last lecture, Julia Allenstein, Andreas Schaller's attending psychologist, contacted the psychiatrist. She asks Jessen to help her prove her patient's innocence. This had meanwhile made a suicide attempt. After his recovery, he is supposed to be released from prison, but as soon as he leaves the police building, Tanja Bredesen's father awaits him. He had found out about the allegation against Schaller from the press and had obtained a weapon with which he shot what he believed to be guilty.

On the basis of various indications, Ruiz and Jessen assume that the second "Elbe girl" is still alive. A phone call from Pia Hansen to her father proves that you are right with this assumption. She has also managed to escape in the meantime, but she has no orientation and tries to describe where she is so that she can be saved from her pursuer. That seems to work and all police cars in her vicinity are sent to her immediately. Contrary to expectations, the officers did not find the girl, but found the dungeon in which the kidnapper had kept the girls for years. Although he tries to distract himself with the wrong lead, Jessen sees through the trick. He also comes to the conclusion that the perpetrator may be a police officer, which is why they could not find the escaped Pia Hansen because he was there first and was able to kidnap her again. After reviewing the old files, Jessen is certain that the policeman Gregor Römer is the psychopath he is looking for . While Ruiz is still following the wrong track and is on duty, Jessen is able to convince Anna Bartholomé of his thesis and both go to Römer in his apartment. Without expressing their suspicions against the police officer, so as not to endanger the girl, they gain entry into Roman's house. But he quickly suspects that he has been recognized and shoots Bartholomé, who is wearing a bulletproof vest under her uniform. Then he forces Jessen to kill him, which the psychiatrist does very reluctantly, but with the certainty that it will save Pia Hansen. The girl has to be brought to the clinic as soon as possible because Römer gave her a large number of sleeping pills to calm her down.

reception

Audience rating

In addition to the track - Say, I'm sorry , was broadcast on March 12, 2018 in prime time on ZDF and reached a rate of 6.67 million viewers and a 20.2 percent market share.

Reviews

Rainer Tittelbach from tittelbach.tv said: “For genre crime fans, the series 'Beside the Track' […] offers a welcome change from the routine of investigators. The crime thriller […] have a visually cool, sometimes extremely physical, sometimes psychologically balanced genre film orientation. 'Say, you're sorry' is exciting, but thematically not easy fare. […] The story thrives heavily on the main character and bypasses the usual buddy clichés. Noethen / Maurer are a strong duo. The greatest dramaturgical plus: the sadism of the perpetrator is not taken over by the film - pity instead of voyeurism! "

The critics of the TV magazine TV Spielfilm gave the best rating (thumbs up) and wrote: “The fifth part of the series also draws a lot of dynamism from the unequal duo Ruiz / Jessen; and Noethen fills his role with the necessary balance between cool, almost arrogant self-confidence and laboriously hidden brokenness. His incurable illness and family problems identify the investigator as a human figure who carries her own package. "

At the FAZ Heike Hupertz came to the verdict: “The fifth case of the ZDF series 'Beside the Track' […] is about kidnapped and abused girls, a brutal cover-up double murder of a married couple and the painstaking puzzle work performed by the police and psychologist Investigations. The resolution is comparatively banal and disappointing. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Rainer Tittelbach : Ulrich Noethen, Juergen Maurer, Roth. One trembles, the other trembles with rage. Film review at tittelbach.tv, accessed on April 15, 2018.
  2. ↑ Short review , at tvspielfilm.de, accessed on April 15, 2018.
  3. ↑ Heike Hupertz: In the Abyss, facts become meaningless at fr.de/kultur, accessed on May 15, 2017.