Police call 110: child welfare

Episode of the series Polizeiruf 110
Original title	Child welfare
Country of production	Germany
original language	German , Polish
Production ; company	Filmpool Fiction ; on behalf of NDR
length	88 minutes
classification	Episode 376 ( List )
First broadcast	April 7, 2019 on Das Erste
Rod
Director	Lars Jessen
script	Christina Sothmann , Lars Jessen and Elke Schuch
production	Iris Kiefer , Ilka Förster
music	Jacob Ilya
camera	Kristian Leschner
cut	Nikolai Hartmann
occupation
	Anneke Kim Sarnau : Katrin König; Charly Hübner : Alexander Bukow; Andreas Guenther : Anton Pöschel; Josef Heynert : Volker Thiesler; Uwe Preuss : Henning Röder; Fanny Staffa : Vivian Bukow; Klaus Manchen : Veit Bukow; June's Marlon : Keno; Jack Owen Berglund : Samuel Bukow; Christina Große : Valli; Ilona Schulz : Ingeliese Poll; Anna Brüggemann : Karen Virchow; Niklas Post : Otto Badi;

Child Welfare is a television film by Lars Jessen from 2019. It is the 376th episode in the crime series Polizeiruf 110 . The Rostock investigator duo Kriminalhauptkommissar Alexander Bukow ( Charly Hübner ) and the LKA officer Katrin König ( Anneke Kim Sarnau ) are investigating his 19th case. The main guest stars of this episode are Junis Marlon , Jack Owen Berglund , Christina Große , Ilona Schulz and Anna Brüggemann .

action

Keno, who is housed in a home for young people who are difficult to educate, is on the run from the home when he meets the head of the private children's home operator, Stig Virchow, in a wooded area. Keno was under house arrest and is approached accordingly by Virchow, whom he then shoots. Keno's companion, Samuel, the son of Chief Detective Alexander Bukow, becomes an eyewitness. Then Keno fled with Samuel on foot and as a hitchhiker eastwards, towards Poland.

The disappearance of the two youths, which is quickly noticed, as well as footprints in the snow, suggest that Keno and Samuel have something to do with the murder of Virchow. After viewing the surveillance video of a store where the boys are stealing alcohol, the detectives suspect that Samuel has been taken hostage by Keno. In order to find out the young people's possible goal, Detective Inspector König and her colleagues in the children's home and in the youth welfare office investigate. It is revealed that the responsible officer in the youth welfare office ensured, mainly for financial reasons, that German children in Eastern European countries are placed in foster families. One of those children is Otto, Keno's older half-brother, who is now - at risk of suicide due to the dreary living environment - has to live and work in a religious family on a remote, run-down Polish farm.

While the commissioners Bukow and König are chasing the two murder suspects eastwards, they reach the farm shortly before them. At this point Otto is already dead, killed by lying down under his foster father's pick-up , which was driving backwards, with suicidal intent . After Keno had the foster father bring him to the place where he had buried Otto shortly before, the new inspectors can resolve the situation before the foster father also kills Keno.

Shooting, premiere

The film recordings were made between February 20 and March 21, 2018. The film was shot in Rostock , Völschow , Neu Wulmstorf , Großhansdorf , Łęgi and Buk in Poland and in Hamburg . The premiere took place on March 12, 2019 at the German TV Crime Festival in Wiesbaden.

reception

Audience rating

The first broadcast of Polizeiruf 110: Kindwohl on April 7, 2019 was seen by a total of 7.84 million viewers in Germany and achieved a market share of 21.4 percent for Das Erste .

criticism

Inna Hartwich from the Neue Zürcher Zeitung explained: The new Rostock 'police call' is not a Whodunit story. 'Child welfare' tells of children who are given to foster families abroad. A disturbing case, a fitting one for König and Bukow. (...) With the 'Polizeiruf' episode ' Kindwohl ' , the director Lars Jessen delivers an ambivalent crime case that illuminates human cold-bloodedness from different angles - and deliberately leaves a lot in the dark.

Ernst Corinth / RND from the Göttinger Tageblatt said: “This 'Police Call 110' wants to do more than just entertain. The director Lars Jessen and his co-screenwriter Christina Sothmann tell not only gripping and sometimes really touching relationship dramas - this also includes the extremely tense relationship between Bukow and König. Your film primarily accuses. The focus of the criticism are the completely overwhelmed youth welfare offices and the associated increased involvement of privately operated youth welfare institutions. "

Claudia Tieschky wrote in the Süddeutsche Zeitung : “What happens when you can no longer reach children, when they slip away? In this winter film (director: Lars Jessen) the answer depends with brutal consequence on the social status, but also on whether there is someone there to protect a child. (...) Difficult material, about which one would like more information than the dry sentence in the credits: 'At the moment, around 850 children from Germany are living in foster families in other European countries.' Generally speaking, the script (Christina Sothmann, Lars Jessen, Elke Schuch) doesn't make it easy. "

Heike Hupertz was of the opinion in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : “ 'Kindwohl' , the new case of Katrin König (Anneke Kim Sarnau) and Alexander Bukow (Charly Hübner) is depressing as usual, and was filmed in an aesthetically outstanding way from the crime scene (camera Kristian Leschner) and played strong. The fact that 'Polizeiruf 110' has become a better 'crime scene' is shown once more in the film written by Christina Sothmann, Lars Jessen and Elke Schuch and set in a bleak Swedish crime scene by Lars Jessen. "

The film service rated the film with three out of five possible stars and gave the verdict: “Impressive due to the intense performance of the main actors”, but also “quite schematic” in the drawing of the secondary characters.

“While in Bukow the biographical details were developed relatively coherently from one series to the next, in König the linear development got into a falter. Now she is often only a marginal figure, which is inappropriate in view of the acting presence of the sensational actress Anneke Kim Sarnau, but also in view of the potential of the role. "

- Christian Buß : Spiegel Online