Police call 110: smoldering fire

Episode of the series Polizeiruf 110
Original title	Smoldering fire
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Production company	MDR
length	89 minutes
classification	Episode 171 ( List )
First broadcast	June 11, 1995 on Das Erste
Rod
Director	Petra Haffter
script	Michaela Bach Jörg Schade
production	Karl-Heinz Staamann
music	Stefan Warmuth
camera	Jürgen Heimlich
cut	Inge Schneider Nicola Undritz
occupation
Günter Naumann : Chief Inspector Beck Til Schweiger : Commissioner Martin Markwardt Gerd Preusche : Grabowski Anne-Sophie Briest : Elke Markwardt Vladimir Weigl : Wiesner Thomas Nicolai : Andi Asad Schwarz : Gerold Marie Anne Fliegel : Mrs. Strathe Ilona Schulz : Helga Köster Petra Ehlert : fire chief Harry Baer : Forensic Technician Barbara Stanek : Mayor Julia Lindig : coroner Günter Bothur : site manager Bernd Vollbrecht : Bank employee

Smoldering is a German crime film by Petra Haffter from 1995. The television film was released as the 171st episode in the film series Polizeiruf 110 .

action

In the small town of Saalfeld in Thuringia , the third fire occurs in a short time. The arson took place again using "Russian fuel", which destroyed a listed bakery, among other things. The property with the bakery belongs to Grabowski, the father-in-law of Inspector Martin Markwardt. Markwardt begins investigating the case. He has financial worries, having built a house with his wife Elke, and big problems paying the installments to the bank. He is frustrated that the current arrears have been settled by his wife, who received the money from Grabowski. He was always against a marriage of his daughter and considers Markwardt to be incapable. Markwardt learns by chance that Grabowski sold the property with the back house ruins shortly after the fire for millions to the investor Sanora, who needed the land for the construction of a clinic, but the listed back house stood in the way of a purchase. Markwardt begins investigating his father-in-law. He takes a gasoline sample from one of the barrels stored there at the junkyard and has it examined. Shortly afterwards there is a fire in the Friedrichstal inn, while Grabowski and his hunting buddies have a regulars' table there. Grabowski was the first to notice the fire and at the last second was able to save Lehmann, who was resting in the house and had stayed in his room due to illness. Lehmann comes to the hospital seriously injured.

Markwardt suspects the two street musicians Andi and Gerold of having started the fires on Grabowski's behalf, as the investigation has shown that the gasoline used for the fires came from the junkyard. Both claim to have been in Erfurt at the time of the fire. Markwardt receives a confession from his father-in-law that he started the fires. Elke, however, begs him to cover her father, otherwise her life would be destroyed. Grabowski, in turn, offers the couple 500,000 marks in hushing money, which Elke invests and which Markwardt therefore cannot return. Grabowski is delighted that Markwardt has now been guilty of bribery and withholding evidence, so that both are now in the same boat.

Lehmann dies in the hospital, which is why Chief Detective Beck is transferred to the investigation. Beck starts his investigations from scratch, as Markwardt withholds all previous knowledge. Grabowski meanwhile wants to muzzle witnesses and sets fire to a barrack where street musician Andi sleeps with his dog. Andi escapes, but is arrested as a possible arsonist. Markwardt forgets himself during the interrogation of Andis, so Beck excludes him from the questioning. Andi has to stay in town as a suspect. Beck continues to research and in the process also arrives at the land registry , where he must come across Grabowski's sales file. Markwardt therefore seeks out Andi and offers him 20,000 marks if he pretends to be an arsonist and thus cover Grabowski. Andi refuses and is beaten by Markwardt.

Beck and Helga Köster from the land registry go together to the Gasthaus Friedrichstal, where Beck reconstructs that Grabowski couldn't see the fire near Lehmann from where he was at the time, and that he must therefore be the arsonist. On the way to Grabowski, Beck and Markwardt, recently bitten by his dog, come across a new fire. This time a shed was set on fire; Inside are the corpses of Andi and his dog. The autopsy reveals that Andi was dead before the fire and was the victim of a fight. The other features also do not match the fires of the previous serial offender. Because Markwardt is related to the suspect Grabowski and there are files on his desk that could have moved the case forward, Beck pulls him off the case. Markwardt's colleague Wiesner secretly informs him that there is an arrest warrant against Grabowski. Markwardt goes to his father-in-law and shoots him. He fired a second shot with one of his hunting rifles, pressed it into the dead man's hand and claimed in front of Beck that he had acted in self-defense because Grabowski tried to shoot him on arrival. However, Beck notices that Markwardt's weapon is missing a second bullet. He has Andi's dog autopsied, who was also dead after the fire; with the result that he was shot with a bullet from Markwardt's gun after the dog had previously bitten him. Only the confrontation with Elke, who asks her husband for a confession, since Grabowski was with her on the evening of Andi's death, leads Markwardt to a confession: how he wanted to bribe Andi, who refused and laughed at him and then beat him to death . Markwardt now also confesses the murder of Grabowski.

production

Saalfeld in Thuringia, the main location of the film

Smoldering fire was filmed mainly in Saalfeld as well as in Meura , Bad Blankenburg and near Königs Wusterhausen . The costumes for the film were created by Joyce Tan , the film structures were created by Lothar-Hermann Schneider . The film had its television premiere on June 11, 1995 on the first . The audience participation was 18.8 percent.

It was the 171st episode of the Polizeiruf 110 film series . Chief Inspector Beck investigated in his 9th case. It was the only investigative assignment of the later crime scene commissioner Til Schweiger , who here as commissioner Martin Markwardt is initially an investigator and later a perpetrator. In the anniversary police call Kurschatten from 2001, the episode smoldering fire runs in a scene on television. On the occasion of the celebrations for 800 years of Saalfeld's city rights, a Saalfeld film night took place in November 2008, during which the smoldering police call filmed in the city was shown.

criticism

The daily found that the crime thriller "developed slowly, just like a 'smoldering fire'", but like other police calls before it also had a tendency to "sometimes more, sometimes less sympathetic [m] amateurism ". Above all, Anne-Sophie Briest's game was “ extremely bad”, while Til Schweiger played “the little policeman very convincingly as an idiot in a love trap”. "Young Til passes the acid test," wrote the TV feature film .

literature

• Peter Hoff: Police call 110. Films, facts, cases . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, pp. 229-230, ISBN 3-360-00958-4 .

Web links

• Police 110: smoldering in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Police call 110: Smoldering fire on Das Erste.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Peter Hoff: Police call 110. Films, facts, cases . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, p. 180.
2. ↑ Thanks to Honecker. From collective to college: ARD is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the crime series Polizeiruf 110 . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , June 23, 2001, p. 22.
3. ↑ Saalfeld Film Night as part of the city anniversary - A city in the mirror of the film industry . In: Ostthüringer Zeitung , November 5, 2008, p. OASA 205.
4. ^ Anke Westphal: Family grave . In: Die Tageszeitung , June 13, 1995, p. 18.
5. ^ Police call 110: Smoldering fire on tvspielfilm.de

previous episode May 28, 1995: Seven days of freedom

Police Call 110 Follow

next episode July 2, 1995: Brother Lustig