Simon Polt
Simon Polt is the fictional title character of several crime novels by the Austrian author Alfred Komarek . In the film adaptations of the novel, the figure is embodied by Erwin Steinhauer .
Main character gendarmerie officer Simon Polt
He is very introverted. Occasionally he comes across as melancholy and brooding. Polt is deeply rooted in the Lower Austrian Weinviertel . He lives alone in his house in Brunndorf. He is in love with the teacher Karin Walter. He knows his Rayon and people with their strengths and especially their weaknesses.
Polt has a strong sense of justice. He is a sensitive guy who, thanks to his sensitivity, can find out what he wants to know when talking to other people. Polt doesn't like to punish, he doesn't shoot and doesn't like to use force. He always rides his old bike to the crime scene and goes there in search of the truth. Thanks to his tenacity, he solves the cases in his very own way.
The people in Brunndorf are suspicious of Polt. Sometimes he suffers from being a professional outsider.
scene of action
The crime series takes place in and around Brunndorf, a small wine-growing village in the Wiesbachtal. The Wiesbachtal is a fictional valley in the Lower Austrian Weinviertel in the Hollabrunn district , near the Czech border, the real model is the Pulkautal . For example, the film was shot in Pillersdorf , Mitterretzbach , Großkadolz , Mailberg , Wullersdorf , Obritz , Untermarkersdorf and Hadres .
In Komarek's descriptions it sometimes seems as if time has stood still in the vineyards and press houses . However, the reader soon realizes that this idyll is only a superficial one.
consequences
Komarek's novels are both crime fiction and milieu study. He describes the problems of the border districts such as unemployment and the emigration of young people to the city. The picture of village life in Weinviertel is becoming increasingly gloomy: In the first 'Polt' an intact, conspiratorial village community committed collective murder of someone who had deserved nothing good, and in the end one sacrificed himself for the others by taking the blame on himself and committed suicide. But this village community dissolves over the years: There are only a few winegrowers left, the youth hardly find any prospects; Willingness to use violence, drugs and indifference are taking hold. The last part of the series ('Alt, aber Polt') is unique in terms of blackness and worldly skepticism.
The stories about the gendarme Simon Polt were filmed by ORF . Julian Pölsler is the scriptwriter and director of the 90-minute episodes . The film music for it always came from the band Haindling .
| year | title | novel | filming |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Polt has to cry | Haymon Verlag , Innsbruck, ISBN 978-3257231298 | Polt has to cry , ORF, 2000 |
| 2000 | Flowers for Polt | Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck, ISBN 978-3257232950 | Flowers for Polt , ORF, 2001 |
| 2001 | Heaven, Polt and Hell | Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck, ISBN 978-3257233582 | Heaven, Polt and Hell , ORF, 2002 |
| 2003 | Hen party | Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck, ISBN 978-3257233933 | Hen party , ORF, 2003 |
| 2009 | Polt | Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck, ISBN 978-3852186047 | Polt. , ORF 2013 |
| 2011 | Twelve times Polt | Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck, ISBN 978-3852186788 | not yet filmed |
| 2015 | Old, but Polt | Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck, ISBN 978-3709971772 | Old, but Polt , ORF 2018 |
Polt has to cry
Real estate speculator Albert Hahn is found dead in his basement. He died of fermentation gas poisoning. The doctor responsible assumes an accident. But Polt knows that the dead were hated in the community. He suspects that the killer wanted death to look like an accident. Many of the winemakers have a motive.
Flowers for Polt
Two tragic accidents happened in Brunndorf. Rudi Riebl's accidental death is not particularly surprising. He had made it his job to ambush drunk people and throw himself in front of their car with his moped. Of course, with the aim of claiming compensation for pain and suffering. The second accident overtakes the disabled Willi, Polt's friend. He falls to his death. Polt investigates and his doubts about the authenticity of the accidents grow.
Heaven, Polt and Hell
While Polt and the teacher Karin become a couple and move in together, the pastor's cook from Wiesbachtal is murdered with belladonna. The suspects include several: the passing gourmet critic Heinz Hafner, who once had a relationship with the cook and suddenly leaves, as well as the pastor and his sacristan. During his investigations, Polt finds out that the pastor's cook has had various love affairs within the village over the years.
Hen party
When Polt took part in a nightly ice wine reading by his fellow villager Karl Fürnkranz, the body of Ferdinand Lutzer, a casual worker and womanizer, was discovered in the grape press . To Polt's discomfort, it turns out during his research that Fürnkranz and his son are suspects. Polt's investigations lead him to the Czech red light district.
Polt.
Simon Polt is in voluntarily chosen retirement. When he stumbles over a corpse one evening, he becomes both a suspect and a private investigator.
Twelve times Polt
Not a self-contained novel, but twelve episode-like stories that span over twenty years of Simon Polt's life.
Old, but Polt
The retired Simon Polt has gone to the winemakers and invites you to drink in his press house every first Sunday of the month. On the way home from one of these meetings, he observes something that challenges his criminal skills again. (In this episode, which was created 18 years after the first 'Polt', the old Polts weapon was discreetly replaced by an electric bike.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heinz Sichrovsky: Until the world freezes, in: News, No. 13, 2018, pp. 82–85; Article on the occasion of the broadcast of 'Alt, aber Polt' on ORF.