Police call 110: Guilty

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Episode of the series Polizeiruf 110
Original title Guilty
Country of production GDR
original language German
Production
company		 Television of the GDR
length 90 minutes
classification Episode 55 ( List )
First broadcast October 1, 1978 on GDR 1
Rod
Director Rolf Römer
script Rolf Römer
production Erich Biedermann
music Franz Bartzsch
4 HP (execution)
camera Peter Krause
cut Marion Fiedler
occupation

Guilty is a German crime film by Rolf Römer from 1978. The television film was released as the 55th episode in the film series Polizeiruf 110 .

action

Eva Rickelmann, her new boyfriend Ullrich Peters and her supervisor Paul Sternsdorff gain access to Eva's apartment in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district . Eva's ex-boyfriend Jochen has lived here for a few months. It's March, the last time they saw each other in December. Eva had been beaten by the violent and often drunk Jochen and moved out, but had given Jochen the apartment for temporary use. At first she lived with her daughter's family and then with the Sternsdorff family. Now she wants to get some of her spring things and has taken the two men with her for protection. The mailbox in the hallway overflows and the apartment is locked several times. There is chaos in the apartment and Ullrich finally finds Jochen's mummified body in the kitchen. The gas tap has been turned on and has been for weeks. A neighbor claims to have noticed the smell. Instead of calling the police, they preferred to ventilate them regularly.

The police are alerted and Peter Fuchs resigns. He has just been promoted from lieutenant to captain and has been showered with flowers by his colleagues Vera Arndt, Lieutenant Woltersdorf and the police photographer. Now the emotionally upsetting case is waiting for Peter Fuchs and Vera Arndt, and especially Vera Arndt is thrown by the smell of gas in the apartment and the sight of the dead man. She reacts disturbed and is sent home early by Peter Fuchs. When Peter Fuchs picks her up that evening for his promotion ceremony, Vera Arndt struggles with her work, in which she only gets to face the negative sides of society. At a later interrogation of Ullrich Peters, she reacts uncontrollably and prejudice, so that Peter Fuchs has to reprimand her. Only after a while does she regain control.

The autopsy of the corpse shows that neither the gas nor the cut arteries were the cause of the death. Rather, a shock injury led to a fractured skull and death. The corpse also shows footprints and the condition of the apartment suggests a fight. In the apartment, the investigators find a suicide note that refers to an earlier suicide note. However, this is not found. Many are suspicious. Ullrich Peters could have been interested in Jochen's death because his presence in Eva's apartment also endangers his relationship with Eva. Paul Sternsdorff wanted Eva out of the apartment after he realized that she was an alcoholic.

The investigators learned from a neighbor that shortly before Christmas there was a loud argument in Jochen's apartment, which suddenly stopped after a violent blow. Another neighbor admits to having been with Jochen on the day he was writing a farewell letter. Jochen left school after the 7th grade, but worked his way up with the Reichsbahn for more than 20 years and made it to the shunting master. While drunk, he caused an accident with property damage at the train station and was then to be given a penalty - a measure that was intended as a warning for other colleagues and could not be explained by his misconduct. Jochen gave up everything, worked in other jobs and finally with his only friend Spiering as a coal carrier. When he lost this job too because he was constantly ill or didn't feel like working, he wanted to kill himself. His neighbor read the suicide note, but did not try to stop Jochen from doing the crime. In the end it turns out that Spiering is Jochen's murderer. The first farewell letter from Jochen can be found in his garage, in which he reported on the criminal activities that he carried out with Spiering. When transporting coal, they secretly stole from their customers and sold the stolen goods, which were mainly western goods. Spiering, who, as so often, had come to Jochen's apartment unannounced, read the farewell letter and reacted indignantly. During the scuffle, he pushed Jochen so hard that he broke his skull. Then Spiering tried to cover up the act with the staged Gastod. He is arrested.

production

Schuldig was filmed in Berlin from March 1 to April 20, 1978. The costumes for the film were created by Margarete Salow , the film structures were created by Günther Möller and Karin Schmidt . The film experienced on October 1, 1978 the first program of the television of the GDR its television premiere. The audience participation was 65.9 percent.

It was the 55th episode in the film series Polizeiruf 110 . Captain Peter Fuchs investigated in his 34th case, Lieutenant Vera Arndt in her 35th and Lieutenant Woltersdorf made a cameo in his 4th case. The only television film directed by Rolf Römer was guilty .

An insider gag is the coal trade "Godemann" (emblazoned on the delivery truck), whose boss is portrayed by actor Werner Godemann.

Cinematic and aesthetic aspects

Schuldig is one of the most provocative and aesthetically innovative films in the Police Call series and sparked a scandal after it was broadcast. With clear reference to the aesthetics of the films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder , the film is strongly dedicated to the inner workings of the characters, especially the female lieutenant Arndt, contains explicit scenes of violence or sexually charged scenes and openly addresses social and individual problems, including suicide. In terms of film, this orientation corresponds to longer (and often dialogue-free) close-ups as well as refined flashbacks, action interruptions in the form of movement studies (moving shunting locomotives and coupling of freight wagons at the freight yard, sometimes in the backlight) and finally the depiction of Schober's death in slow motion, shockingly contrasted by a red swatch. After Schuldig, Rolf Römer did not receive another directing assignment from DEFA.

literature

  • Peter Hoff: Police call 110. Films, facts, cases. Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-360-00958-4 , pp. 103-106.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Presentation according to http://www.polizeiruf110-lexikon.de/filme.php?Nummer=055 (link only available to a limited extent)
  2. ^ Peter Hoff: Police call 110. Films, facts, cases . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, p. 63.
  3. ↑ cf. New Germany from September 20, 1995, https: //www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/570834.die-jahre-in-der-ddr-n-keine-verlorene-zeit.html? Sstr = rolf | römer | guilty (link only available to a limited extent)
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October 22, 1978: The last chance