Crime scene: winter chess

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Episode of the series Tatort
Original title Winter chess
Country of production Germany
original language German
Production
company		 SR
length 88 minutes
classification Episode 212
First broadcast November 13, 1988 on German television
Rod
Director Hans-Christoph Blumenberg
script Manfred Jacobs
production Telefilm Saar GmbH
music Jürgen Wolter
camera Wolfgang Dickmann , Daniel Koppelkamm
cut Monika Solzbacher
occupation

Winter chess is the 212th television film in the crime series Tatort and the eighth Tatort produced by Saarland Radio . It was first broadcast on November 13, 1988. It is the second case with Commissioner Palu as an investigator. Palu has to do with the murder of a psychiatrist and the assassination attempt on a politician in exile, as well as foreign intelligence activities on German soil.

action

The Latin American professor Luiz Santos, who lives in exile in Saarbrücken, is physically and mentally marked by the torture inflicted on him by the military junta in his home country. At the University of Saarbrücken he teaches about literature in the shadow of the dictatorship in his home country. Santos is contacted by his compatriot Gimenez, an intelligence officer of the military dictatorship. He announced that there will soon be free elections in their home country and that Santos should run as a candidate for his Socialist Party against the dictator. Santos refuses because he doesn't believe in a really democratic election anyway, but Gimenez puts him under pressure knowing that Santos betrayed his party comrades under torture at the time, the junta would make this public and ruin his reputation not only at home if he didn't play along, Santos reluctantly agrees to run. Santos is looking for his psychiatrist Dr. von Heiden, with whom he is being treated for his trauma. He told him about the pressure that was on him, the junta was playing a kind of chess game with him that he could hardly win. In the evening, while Santos is telling his partner Laura Meister about his plans, Heiden von Gimenez is murdered and his notes regarding Santos are stolen.

Palu and his assistants are called to the scene the next morning. Palu finds a message from Santos on the answering machine, but no associated patient file in the murdered man's files. Meanwhile, Laura suggests Santos cancel his lectures and take him on vacation to distract him from his candidate plans. Gimenez learns of the vacation plans through a bug on Santos' phone, he kidnaps Santos, beats him up and threatens that something could happen to his girlfriend Laura if he escapes. He also indicates that he had murdered von Heiden and that Santos had no choice but to run for office. Shortly afterwards, Palu visits Santos at home to ask him about von Heiden. Santos claims to have sustained the injuries from a fall, he confirms that he was a patient of Heidens, he does not provide any further information. Palu can research that Santos was minister of education in a democratically elected government until the military launched a coup. A radical socialist exile group in Saarbrücken around Maria Casals sees Santos' plans to return as a betrayal, so Maria wants to kill Santos while he is still in Saarbrücken. Santos senses that because of his candidacy, he has lost support in the exiled community. He wants to shoot himself on a winter walk, but is disturbed by playing children. Shortly afterwards, two compatriots from Maria Casals' group shot Santos in the open street, but Santos survived seriously injured.

Despite police protection, Maria Casals manages to get into Santos' room disguised as a sister. She tries to kill him with an injection, but is killed by Gimenez's assistant. The prostitute Sylvie, who saw the assassins run away from Santos, testified to Palu the next day that she knew the shooter briefly, while Gimenez and his assistant sought out Maria's comrades, Gimenez's assistant killed them, but then turned back shot by Laura. Palu arrives with his colleagues and is able to arrest Gimenez while Laura flees. In Gimenez's car, the officers find the video cassette that documents the torture and the forced betrayal of Santos. Palu speaks to Santos in the hospital about it, who says that his political friends wanted to protect him from becoming a puppet of the junta. Shortly afterwards, Laura Meister calls the hospital room, Palu answers the phone. Believing that she was speaking to Santos, she told him that she was sorry for the attack and that she was outvoted by the others. Palu realizes that Laura has betrayed Santos' plans to the comrades and participated in the murder plot, he has them written out for a manhunt. Despite the manhunt, Laura manages to leave for Moscow, while Santos succumbs to his injuries in the hospital. Shortly afterwards, the general of the military junta announced that the “free” presidential election would now take place with him as the only candidate.

Production and special features

The episode was filmed between February 22nd and March 29th, 1988 in Saarbrücken and the surrounding area. Winter chess was supposed to denounce the inhuman methods of military dictatorships in general, and when it was broadcast it unexpectedly became politically explosive due to the events in Chile at the time.

criticism

The critics of the television magazine TV-Spielfilm rate this crime scene positively with “Palu uses his combinatorial gifts”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ tatort-fundus.de: Production and special features
  2. ↑ [1] on tvspielfilm.de, accessed on January 3, 2016.
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December 11, 1988: programmed for murder