Crime scene: dance of death

Episode of the series Tatort
Original title	Dance of death
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Production ; company	Bavarian radio
length	88 minutes
classification	Episode 510 ( List )
First broadcast	October 13, 2002 on Das Erste
Rod
Director	Thomas Freundner
script	Klaus Bädekerl
music	JJ Gerndt
camera	Benjamin Dernbecher
cut	Ulla Möllinger
occupation
	Miroslav Nemec : Chief Detective Ivo Batic; Udo Wachtveitl : Chief Detective Franz Leitmayr; Michael Fitz : Carlo Menzinger; Denise Zich : Tina Lehmann; Bela B .: Olaf Leber alias DJ Lupo; Wanja Mues : Frank Fischer; Daniela Ziegler : Ms. Lehmann; Jockel Tschiersch : Felix Schelski; Thomas Meinhardt : Bernd Weinhold; Wolfgang Fierek : Johannes "Joe" Schwab; Rudolf Waldemar Brem : Mr. Ziegler, drug policeman; Hubert Mulzer : Prof. Weber; Kathrin Freundner : Karin; David Scheller : Axel Kolb; Max Haupt : Jim; Elyas M'Barek : Guest at K2;

Totentanz is a German television film from the crime series Tatort . The report produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk was first broadcast on October 13, 2002 on ARD's first program. It was the 32nd case for the investigative duo Batic and Leitmayr .

action

The young actress Jenny Hellwig dies in the Munich scene club K2. Instead of an ecstasy pill, she swallowed potassium cyanide . The investigators Ivo Batic and Franz Leitmayr interrogate the DJ of the club DJ Lupo, who had a brief affair with Jenny. He not only tells you the identity of the victim, but also their address. Jenny lived with her sandpit friend Tina Lehmann, who works as a doctor and is currently writing her doctoral thesis. The trio of friends also includes the artist Frank Fischer, who was in the club with Jenny. However, the interviews do not help the investigators.

Batic receives a tip from a former school friend that the art factory, which also houses K2, should be closed. A possible successor hall would be the old rolling mill, for which K2 owner Felix Schelski and the owner of the cultural center Cucaracha Bernd Weinhold are fighting. However, in a recent raid in Cucaracha, huge amounts of drugs were found, so that Schelski will probably be awarded the contract for the rolling mill. Bernd Weinhold believes that Schelski put the drugs on him and could now have retaliated with a dead man. Jenny in turn could have known about Schelski's machinations and therefore put her life in danger.

The investigators learn that as a doctoral student, Tina Lehmann also had access to the clinic's poison cabinet, in which potassium cyanide is stored. An examination of the potassium cyanide shows that small amounts have been replaced by flour. Batic and Leitmayr follow Tina Lehmann's trail into K2. Here she adds a cyanide pill to a cup of coffee and wants to give the coffee to DJ Lupo, but drops the cup at the last second. At the same time, the singers of the Cucaracha in K2 are causing chaos because they scatter butyric acid in the club - the investigators only got them to actively damage the club's image. Tina flees the club from the investigators, but later surrenders to Batic. She confesses that she stole potassium cyanide from the clinic. At the same time, she incriminates Lupo as a murderer, because Jenny told her that Lupo was her murderer if something should happen to her. She had secretly recorded a tape in which Lupo not only said that he sells drugs on a regular basis, but also that, on Felix Schelski's instructions, the Cucaracha actually had drugs. With the tape she wanted to extort 50,000 euros from Lupo, but Felix Schelski stepped in and signed a “lifestyle contract” with Jenny for 30,000 euros, which legalized the extortion fee and was to be signed shortly. Lupo, in turn, says that he gets his pills from Frank Fischer.

Frank Fischer has a criminal record for drug trafficking, but describes it as his youthful sin. He presents large, regular incoming payments to his account as the income from art sales. The investigators find several video cassettes with him that depict his new art project Visitors : Without their knowledge, he films every visitor in his studio. A video shows him having sex with Jenny, who ends up receiving a large sum of money from him. When the investigators want to question Frank about the video, they see two doormen Schelski come out of his studio. Batic confronts both men, while Leitmayr finds Frank in the studio. Tina Lehmann was visiting his studio when the two men came and was hiding behind the curtains. She says that both of them killed Frank. Leitmayr secures the tape that Frank ran as part of the Visitors project, but the crucial murder sequence is missing because the tape had expired at the time. Nevertheless, he plays the tape to the two bouncers and they react furiously that their innocence cannot be proven by the early termination. The blow to the cervical vertebra must also have been carried out by a professional or by a person with precise anatomical knowledge. However, Tina lacks a motive for murder.

In Frank Fischer's studio Carlo finds a cassette on which Tina and Jenny are talking. It becomes clear from him that Tina cheated at the Physikum and someone wrote for her in her place. Tina had such a motive for the murder of Jenny and Frank, who both knew about it and blackmailed her. In a self-talk in a cemetery, Tina admits that she killed Frank when the two men were gone. She had heard the tape rewind before. Jenny, in turn, killed her with one of the cyanide pills she had stolen. In her apartment the investigators find a letter in which she announces that she wants to find Jenny's killer. They also find burned memorabilia, which suggest that Tina wants to commit suicide. Investigators believe she wants to kill herself in a way that makes Lupo responsible for her death. Batic and Leitmayr follow her into K2, where Tina credibly staged in front of the surveillance cameras that Lupo gave her a pill - the last of the three potassium cyanide pills. However, Batic is able to prevent Tina from swallowing the pill. She is taken away and confesses to the investigators about the murder of Jenny and Frank.

production

Totentanz was filmed from February 5 to March 8, 2002 under the working title Die Kunstfabrik in Munich, including in the Kunstpark Ost and on the Altes Südfriedhof . The then Munich techno club KW - Das Heizkraftwerk served as the film set for the fictional scene club K2 . The supporting role of DJ Lupo took on Bela B. , member of the group Die Ärzte .

The first broadcast of Totentanz on October 13, 2002 on Das Erste was seen by 7.23 million viewers and achieved a market share of 20.2 percent.

criticism

"The case seems very overloaded, the team is somehow overwhelmed," said TV Spielfilm , and summarized: "Quite exciting, but too strenuous". tittelbach.tv called the film “relatively superficial. It's all very good to watch [...] but the makers exaggerate the game with audiovisual media a bit, just like the myth of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll ”.