Missing - Alexandra Walch, 17
| Television broadcast | |
|---|---|
| German title | The last trace - Alexandra, 17 years old |
| Original title | Missing - Alexandra Walch, 17 |
| Country of production | Austria |
| original language | German |
| year | 2010 |
| length | 180 minutes |
| Episodes | 2 |
| genre | Thriller , crime series |
| First broadcast | March 31, 2011 on ORF 1 |
| occupation | |
| |
Missing - Alexandra Walch, 17 (reference title: The last trace - Alexandra, 17 years , also The last trace - When a child disappears ) is an Austrian - German two-part television thriller directed by Andreas Prochaska . Emilia Schüle plays the schoolgirl who disappears on her 17th birthday, Ann-Kathrin Kramer and Richy Müller play the long-suffering parents.
action
On the night of her 17th birthday, Alexandra disappears from Krems , a town on the outskirts of the Wachau in Lower Austria , where the family moved from Germany two years ago. As the police investigation is still progressing slowly, Alexandra's father, Alfred Walch, does his own research and is confronted with details from the life of his daughter that he would not have thought possible because he had assumed that she was still innocent.
Part 1
Alexandra Walch seems to be a happy and fun-loving young girl. Her biggest problem seems to be when she has to be back from the city festival the evening before her birthday. Since father and mother disagree, Alexandra flatters her father's consent to be allowed to stay until half past three. But Alexandra does not come back at the specified time and not the next morning, just like the day after. Anna Walch subliminally reproaches her son Daniel, who should take care of Alexandra. However, since Daniel's girlfriend had broken up with him that evening, he was faced with problems of his own. And little Sonia, the youngest child of the Walchs, is not spared from the disappearance of her sister and the difficult situation within the family resulting from it.
Soon a violent crime can no longer be ruled out. Commissioner Lenz and his colleague Lisa from Vienna are called in. A large-scale search is started. When the body of a young woman is found near the Walch's home, her worst fears appear to be materialized. However, the person killed is not Alexandra. It weighs heavily, however, that Alexandra’s cell phone was found on her.
Part 2
Seven days after Alexandra's disappearance, the hope of finding the young woman still alive fades more and more. The uncertainty about what happened to their daughter is almost unbearable for their parents. Alfred Walch tries to find out for himself what might have happened to his daughter and is often so clumsy that he clashes with Inspector Lenz. Much of what he discovers puzzles him and makes him realize that his daughter was not the innocent young girl he thought she was.
Then a second girl's body is found. And this time it's Alexandra. An autopsy reveals that the young woman was pregnant, further investigations that Alexandra had a relationship with her German teacher.
Ultimately, it turns out that Christina Walch, Alexandra's cousin, is responsible for the death of the young woman. On the evening of her disappearance, Alexandra had angry with her boyfriend Moritz and left his car in the port area. There she met Christina, who had fallen seriously in love with Moritz and had hopes for him after he had slept with her. There was a dispute between the two girls. Alexandra first mocked Christina and then her father Gerhard Walch. Christina then grabbed a stone and hit Alexandra on the head from behind. After seeing what she had done, she called her father who helped her hide Alexandra's body. He did not expect that the prostitute Carla had observed the incident, who immediately began to blackmail Gerhard Walch. Walch, sure that she would never stop, saw the only way out was to kill her. She was the dead person who found Alexandra's cell phone. Although Christina's father wants to take his daughter's guilt on himself when she then wants to throw herself into death, the whole tragic event comes to light.
Production and broadcast
The film was produced by ORF in 2010 in cooperation with Sat.1 . Directed by Andreas Prochaska , the script was written by Prochaska together with Agnes Pluch based on the Spanish 13-part series Patricia Marcos - Desaparecida , which was produced by TVE and broadcast weekly in 2007/2008.
The film was broadcast for the first time on March 30 and 31, 2011 on ORF Eins . The German premiere took place on May 28, 2011 as part of the Großes Fernsehen festival in Cologne. The film was shown on German free-to-air television on September 27, 2011 on Sat.1. The Sat.1 broadcast was not a two-part broadcast and was shortened by around 27 minutes.
criticism
Rainer Tittelbach from tittelbach.tv was of the opinion that it was an "unusual crime thriller" and not only in the context of the Sat.1 movies. “In addition to the great dramaturgical precision, Andreas Prochaska's film also captivates with its grandiose look.” The image design was also praised, which “frames the story in an appropriately gloomy manner and sometimes brings the characters up close without ever having them To lose distance from them and their actions ”. That is "masterful". “In combination with the atmospheric montage, it is technically and aesthetically great television.” Tittelbach praised the overall good cast of the actors and particularly emphasized Richy Müller and Hary Prinz in their roles. Tittelbach summarized his judgment as follows:
“'The last trace - Alexandra 17 years' describes the chronology of a missing person. The viewer witnesses an extensive police operation and learns how the family is dealing with the situation. In a perfect system of hints and omissions, observations and moods, eloquent images and short dialogues, from precise sensory information distribution, the viewer can practice empathy without being stimulated by the characters or forced by the film language. A film that tells itself - exciting, well cast, long, but not too long! "
Web links
- Missing - Alexandra Walch, 17 in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- DiePresse.com: ORF shows two-part series