Crime scene: crocodile guardian

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Episode of the series Tatort
Original title Crocodile guardian
Country of production Germany
original language German
Production
company		 SFB
length 85 minutes
classification Episode 346 ( List )
First broadcast November 10, 1996 on Das Erste
Rod
Director Berno Kürten
script Andreas Pflüger
production Opal film
music Rainer Lingk
camera Michael Wiesweg
cut Ines Bluhm
occupation

Krokodilwächter is a television film from the crime series Tatort by ARD and ORF . The film was produced by the SFB and first broadcast on November 10, 1996. It is the fourth case of the investigator duo Roiter and Zorowski and the 346th crime scene episode.

After the first broadcast, the film ended up in the “ poison cabinet ” and, like the duo's first case, Death in a Jaguar , was therefore not repeated. This investigator duo is the only one with two episodes that landed in the “poison cabinet” of the series.

action

A postal worker is killed by a letter bomb that he transports with the rest of the mail in the post bus. Roiter and Zorowski initially received no further information at the crime scene. The young Russian Irina Alexandrovna is forced into prostitution in a Berlin brothel , the customer Wittkowski offers her to get her out of her situation, but she anxiously refuses. Because she secretly earns money with Wittkowski as a customer, she is brutally beaten and threatened by the pimps Dima Kaschpirowskij and Viktor. Meanwhile, Roiter and Zorowski learn that the letter bomb probably exploded prematurely due to a shock in the car and was therefore not aimed at the postal worker. Irina meanwhile welcomes her sister Nadja, who was also brought to Berlin by the pimps from Russia , Wittkowski secretly observes this. Nadja tells Irina that her father was murdered in Moscow . When Wittkowski stands at her door shortly afterwards, Irina agrees to go with him if he takes Nadja with him. The underworld boss Sascha Gorbunov, Dimas father, makes this and Viktor meanwhile clear that they should not take Irina's ancillary businesses. Dima and Viktor then threaten the pimp Olek Barschowski, to whom they have “rented” Irina and Nadja, and warn him to abide by the rules, but Olek throws them out.

However, Olek gives in to the pressure of his superiors and forces Nadja to prostitution instead of only using her at the bar as promised to compensate for the loss of income caused by Irina. That same night, Irina is raped and murdered by Dima . Nadja, who is forced to watch by Viktor, is able to escape after his sister is murdered. The next morning Roiter and Zorowski evaluate the traces at the crime scene, they quickly determine that the unknown dead woman must have come from the Eastern Bloc. Finding the dead person's address and an apartment key, they go to see her and the neighboring pharmacist Wittkowski. He introduces the officer to Nadja, who had sought protection from her after her sister was murdered that night. Before the officers can question Nadja, she flees from the officers, Wittkowski does not tell the officers about Irina's work in the red light district. The landlord of the apartment is Gorbunow, whom the officials also visit, he pretends to be a serious businessman and does not know his tenant better, he has rented her an apartment as a compatriot, whose sister Nadja he does not know. When the officers are gone, Gorbunov confronts his son-in-law, who reports that Irina wanted to let her go and that he therefore had to act. However, Gorbunov learns from Viktor that Dima killed Irina for a trivial reason. Gorbunov then orders that he and Dima should find Nadja and, as a witness, also eliminate it.

Meanwhile, Roiter and Zorowski learn that Irina had been raped before she was murdered. Zorowski asks his friend Kramnik in the Russian scene in Berlin, who tells him that Gorbunov earns his money in the red light district and only disguises himself as a serious businessman. In the past twelve months he made his money through fraud and girl trafficking , in which he lured the girls from Russia to Berlin and “rented” them to brothels whose owners are called “crocodile watchers” in the scene. Roiter also learns from forensics that Nadja must have witnessed the murder of her sister. Roiter suspects that Irina had to work for Gorbunow and that Nadja is in great danger. Olek, who is put under pressure by Gorbunow because of poor sales figures, tries to convince him of the dangerousness of his son-in-law, but without success. Olek is instructed to hand Nadja over to Dima and Viktor if she shows up at his place, but Nadja seeks help from Wittkowski. In the days that followed, Gorbunov was pressured by his backers in Moscow to take his son-in-law out of circulation; With a heavy heart he agrees to Viktor's removal. The analysis of the remains of the letter bomb shows that it was addressed to Olek Barschowski, Roiter and Zorowski recognize for the first time a connection between the two murder cases.

When Roiter wants to ask around undercover at Olek's brothel in the evening, he watches Viktor putting Olek under pressure. He reveals himself as a criminal investigation officer, but Viktor can take Olek hostage and escape with him. Outside, he has Olek killed by an accomplice. The next morning Viktor meets with Gorbunov, to whose horror Dima appears, whom his best friend Viktor did not kill. While Viktor and Dima kill Gorbunow and dispose of his corpse, Roiter and Zorowski investigate Wittkowski's sailing boat on which Nadja is hiding. One of Wittkowski's employees unwittingly reveals the berth of the boat to Dima and Viktor, and shortly afterwards Roiter and Zorowski as well as Wittkowski, who wants to warn Nadja and escape with her, rush there. Wittkowski is the first to arrive, but is killed by Dima and Viktor. When Roiter and Zorowski arrive, a firefight develops in the course of which Viktor is killed when the officers are about to arrest Dima, Nadja appears and avenges her sister by shooting Dima. Nadja is arrested, Roiter and Zorowski know that only the crocodile guards are dead, the backers in Moscow are out of reach of the judiciary.

production

The Tatort Krokodilwächter is a production by Opal-Filmproduktion GmbH on behalf of the SFB for Das Erste . The film was shot in and around Berlin . When it was first broadcast on November 10, 1996, Krokodilwächter had 7.30 million viewers, which corresponds to a market share of 20.05%.

Krokodilwächter came under fire for brutal, sexist and inhumane depictions. It has not been broadcast on public television since then.

The twelve films of the SFB with Winfried Glatzeder were not recorded on conventional film material, but with the help of Betacam video cameras, which resulted in a video clip aesthetic of the films that has been widely criticized. Police call 110: Seven Days of Freedom , produced by the SFB in 1995 , was also recorded in this format and also criticized.

criticism

TV Spielfilm rated the film negatively and commented: It easily undercuts the level of the series .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Francois Werner, Dominik Pieper: TATORTe in the poison cabinet: Forbidden fruits ; tatort-fundus.de, accessed on October 16, 2014.
  2. ↑ Tatort: ​​Crocodile Guardian at tatort-fundus.de
  3. ↑ The Roiter era - 12 crime scenes from Berlin at tatort-fundus.de
  4. ↑ "Crocodile Guard" - tv feature film
previous episode
October 27, 1996: Party friends 		Crime scene follow next episode
November 24, 1996: The decision maker
Crime scene - Follows with blocking notice
currently blocked episodes

The Ghost Train Case (1972) | With Bare Feet (1980) | Death in a Jaguar (1996) | Crocodile Guardian (1996) | To Whom Honor Is Due (2007)

previously blocked episodes

The dead do not need an apartment (1973) | Death in the underground shaft (1975) | Three loops (1977) | The yellow petticoat (1980) | Blood Trail (1989)


episodes not broadcast during prime time

A Touch of Hollywood (1998) | Franziska (2014)