Police call 110: Death and the devil

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Episode of the series Polizeiruf 110
Original title death and Devil
Country of production Germany
original language German
Production
company		 Bavaria Film
on behalf of BR
length 90 minutes
classification Episode 206 ( List )
First broadcast November 22, 1998 on Das Erste
Rod
Director Berthold Mittermayr
script Berthold Mittermayr
production Veith von Fürstenberg
music Georg Mittermayr
camera Gerhard Hierzer
cut Monika Abspacher
occupation

Death and the Devil is a German crime film by Berthold Mittermayr from 1998. The television film was released as the 206th episode in the film series Polizeiruf 110 .

action

19-year-old Marie is severely schizoid and has another attack, which her strictly religious mother in particular tries to alleviate through prayers. Marie tears up a Bible and attacks her father, so that the parents finally tie her to the bed and lock her up. The next morning the room is empty. Marie ran away that night and met the little drug dealer Rezzo on the street, who took the confused young woman into his apartment. Both sleep together and Marie confesses to Rezzo that she sometimes stands next to her and therefore after a hospital stay in psychiatric treatment with Dr. Silvia Jansen was in Nuremberg. The next morning Marie discovers the blood stain from her defloration on the bed sheet and returns home distraught. By then the police had already been informed of Marie's disappearance. Inspector Berger and his assistant Koch turn to Silvia Jansen, who drives to Marie's parents. They deny her access to the house and yard and Marie's mother Anna accuses her of trying to use therapy to alienate Anna from her parents. Marie, on the other hand, took Rezzo's jacket with her when she left, which contains not only drugs but also a lot of cash. Rezzo wants the jacket back and turns to Silvia Jansen to find out Marie's whereabouts. Silvia casually mentions her last name, so that Rezzo finally finds the house. He is also not allowed on the property, but remains on site until night. At night he notices a priest performing an exorcism on Marie . Marie is acting wild, but is tied to the bed with handcuffs. In the end, she is left exhausted. Rezzo enters her room through the window and asks her where his jacket is. He loosens her bonds and Marie attacks him and bites him. He pushes her away and she remains lying motionless.

Silvia Jansen receives a call from Rezzo asking her to help Marie because he just had to witness a black mass with her. Shortly afterwards, the police appear at Silvia Jansen's home because Marie was found dead. The investigators find Rezzo's jacket with Marie and suspect that Rezzo killed Marie when she refused to tell him the whereabouts of the jacket. Marie, however, has been suffocated with a blue fiber on her teeth. However, the fiber cannot be assigned to Rezzo's clothing. Only the other people present in the evening come into consideration as suspects: the quiet father Franz, the hysterical mother Anna and the priest Josef Riedel, Anna's brother.

Research by the police and Silvia Jansen shows that Franz was not Marie's father. Josef, on the other hand, was suspended from pastoral care some time ago because he was depressed and has since been active as a pastor in the St. Georgen home for the disabled. At the time of the crime, he and Franz had been seen at a gas station. Josef leaves no one to the mentally disturbed Anna, who is being treated in the hospital. However, shortly after the crime he takes his own life and leaves a suicide note in which he accepts all guilt because he wants to protect an innocent person. The circumstances, as well as drawings by Marie, which she made in therapy sessions with Silvia Jansen at the time, lead to the conclusion that Josef had fathered with his sister Marie. Also, Anna is the only one who can be considered the murderer of her daughter. With her friend Paul, who works as a journalist for the Abendblatt , Silvia gains access to Anna's hospital room. She tells Anna that Josef is dead. Anna finally believes in madness that Silvia is Marie, relives the night of the crime and finally tries again to strangle Marie, now Silvia. Paul intervenes. Silvia, in turn, realizes that the blue fibers come from Anna's jacket. Rezzo is released even if he has to answer for trespassing and drug possession. Anna, on the other hand, is considered mentally ill, so she will not be tried for the time being.

production

Death and the Devil is based on two authentic cases from 1978 and 1996, in which two women suffering from epilepsy and schizophrenia believed they were possessed by the devil and died after exorcism, whereby the bereaved were responsible for "negligent homicide or failure to provide assistance" had to. The film was shot in Munich from the end of July 1998 . The costumes of the film created Annette Reinecke-Popp , the Filmbauten submitted by Frank D. Geuer . The film had its television premiere on November 22, 1998 on the first . The audience participation was 18.9 percent.

It was the 206th episode in the Polizeiruf 110 film series . Silvia Jansen investigated in her 4th case.

criticism

"Exorcism 'light' after real cases", stated the TV Spielfilm . "The connoisseurs of sensitive psycho-thrillers will be very bored after a while", stated the Stuttgarter Zeitung , since the script leaves no doubt about the innocence of the main suspect Rezzo. Director and screenwriter Mittermayr “simply dealt with the exorcism material in a striking way”. The Leipziger Volkszeitung described Tod und Teufel as a "strange crime thriller" with "abysmal [m] material, but which didn't really work because director Berthold Mittmayr rarely succeeds in bringing it to life."

literature

  • Peter Hoff: Police call 110. Films, facts, cases . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, p. 238.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Police call 110: Death and the devil on Das Erste.de
  2. ^ "Polizeiruf 110" with Gaby Dohm . In: Lausitzer Rundschau , July 21, 1998, p. 21.
  3. ^ Peter Hoff: Police call 110. Films, facts, cases . Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, p. 215.
  4. ^ Polizeiruf 110: Tod und Teufel on tvspielfilm.de
  5. ↑ cvw: Missed goose bumps . In: Stuttgarter Zeitung , December 1, 1998, p. 31.
  6. ↑ Roland Blüthner: Strange crime thriller . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung , December 1, 1998, p. 12.
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