Wolfsland: The holy grave

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Episode in the series Wolfsland
Original title The holy grave
Country of production Germany
original language German
Production
company
Molina Film
on behalf of Degeto
length 90 minutes
classification Episode 5 ( list )
First broadcast November 28, 2019 on Das Erste
Rod
Director Francis Meletzky
script Sönke Lars Neuwöhner
Sven S. Poser
production Jutta Müller
music Andreas Weidinger
camera Eeva Fleig
cut Andrea Mertens
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor will-
o'-the-wisps

Successor  →
Visitation

The holy grave is a German television film by Francis Meletzky from 2019. It is the fifth film in the ARD crime film series Wolfsland with Götz Schubert and Yvonne Catterfeld in the leading roles.

action

An unknown dead person is found in a mill ditch. The commissioners Viola Delbrück and Burkhard 'Butsch' Schulz from Görlitz are informed and initially have no clues as to the identity of the man. Butsch is also unable to concentrate, because he hoped to end work on time. He is expecting his daughter Emmy to visit and is looking forward to seeing them again after all the years in which they had distanced themselves. Butsch's colleague is ready to take on the case alone, which Butsch gives her high credit for. But before he can leave the scene of the crime, a nun from the Marienthal Cistercian convent appears and wants to speak to the inspector. She found a bloody shoe in the forest and now suspects that a crime may have occurred there. She claims to have recognized the shoe, because last night two young girls stayed in the monastery and one of the two wore such shoes. Butsch can be shown the location and now learns that the two girls were on a pilgrimage and wanted from Bautzen to Görlitz. The superintendent realizes with horror that it can only be his daughter and her girlfriend, who have now both disappeared without a trace. He calls his colleague so that they can start a large manhunt together. Viola Delbrück is still busy with the case of the deceased, whom a witness identified as the travel agent Tommy Pakulat. While looking for clues to the motive for the crime, she discovered traces of blood in front of his apartment, which are now being investigated by forensics. Since she believes Lutz Büttner, Pakulate's neighbor, to be a suspect based on the testimony of a witness, the case is as good as solved for her. Therefore, she turns to her colleague's call for help and also considers a large manhunt to be appropriate.

It turns out that the wanted Lutz Büttner works regularly in the monastery and is known here as very peaceful and extremely religious. He is said to be grateful to the nuns for being able to work with them on God's creation and would love angels very much. He regularly worships an angel statue in the Görlitz cemetery. The nun also remembers that Büttner suddenly perked up at work when one of the girls spoke of having a job: reconciliation. Since then, he has not been seen again. Butsch is therefore convinced that Büttner is holding the girls prisoner and that they probably witnessed Pakulat's murder. Evidence shows that there is blood of the victim in Büttner's apartment.

Viola Delbrück, together with her superior Grimm, constructs the course of the disappearance of the girls. Büttner probably followed them from the monastery and helped them after Emmy injured his foot - which explains the bloody sneaker. He took the girls home with him, where he forcibly held them, which his neighbors happened to notice and why Büttner then forcibly silenced him, disposed of the corpse and hid the girls elsewhere. The search for this hiding place leads Butsch and Delbrück to an empty inn, where Büttner's mother used to be a cook. But it turns out to be a dead end. But you can find a friend who gives the investigators clarity about what went wrong in Büttner's past and what drives him. For example, 17 years ago he lost a daughter to sudden infant death syndrome, so that he sees in Emmys the angel of his own daughter who is supposed to bring him redemption.

When it finally succeeds in finding the hiding place, Büttner is no longer there with the girls. Butsch then suffers a mental breakdown. Delbrück stays by his side and stands by him. After he got better and had a dream in his dream, he hurried to the Marienthal Cistercian convent. He finds Büttner in the monastery church, but no trace of Emmy. Butsch overpowers Büttner and tries to force him to reveal Emmy's hiding place to him. But Büttner only talks in his religious madness that Emmy will redeem him and his daughter will rise again.

Since Büttner has already released Clara because he only wanted Emmy, she can give the investigators a hint, but that's not enough. Büttner buried Emmy somewhere and is now hoping for his daughter's resurrection. So it's time to find Emmy before she suffocates. This succeeds and while Butsch embraces his daughter overjoyed, Büttner suddenly collapses dead in the face of his failed “mission”.

Production notes

The shooting for Wolfsland: The Holy Grave extended from May 8, 2018 to June 7, 2018 and took place in Görlitz and the surrounding area. It was first broadcast on November 28, 2019 on Das Erste .

reception

Audience rating

The first broadcast of Das Heilige Grab on November 28, 2019 was seen by 5.09 million viewers in Germany and achieved a market share of 16.7 percent for Das Erste .

Reviews

Tilmann P. Gangloff from tittelbach.tv wrote: “The film is above average.” “Series thrillers are always particularly captivating when the investigators have to leave their comfort zone because they are affected themselves.” Therefore, “the film develops thanks to the skillful Staging by Francis Meletzky exactly the pull from which every thriller lives, especially since Götz Schubert fills his role with great energy this time and conveys the father's fear for his daughter in an absolutely believable way. ”“ The contrast within this figure is also attractive, because it was before Schulz, who uses you and everyone, always a bit sloppy, always cool and casual; now he completely loses his composure. "

The Berliner Morgenpost assessed: “It was very good for the individual contributions [in the Wolfsland series] that all the scripts were penned by the writer duo Sönke Lars Neuwöhner and Sven S. Poser. They provided a strong primer for the main characters, which is particularly reflected in the fifth film 'The Holy Sepulcher'. "" At the end of the day, you see a film that never bores the viewer for a minute. After all, he is seeing a commissioner who suffers a nervous breakdown and a madman who considers the resurrection to be an exchange program. "

Sidney Schering of Quotenmeter.de said: "The grim crime series affects their program space in good and bad, like a foreign body - the new case is this impression even more." However, "this series developed very well an identity. A mixed up, as these films often bring along an eclectic collection of ideas in addition to their dark elements, which are only brought under one roof with moderate success - but even if these thrillers only get their ideas over the finish line, at least they have ideas. True to the motto: Better to be halfway memorable than mature and interchangeable. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Wolfsland - Das Heilige Grab (AT) at crew united
  2. "Wolfsland - Das heilige Grab" (AT): Yvonne Catterfeld and Götz Schubert are investigating again in Görlitz and the surrounding area on the presseportal.de page, accessed on September 20, 2019.
  3. ^ "Wolfsland": Yvonne-Catterfeld-Krimi returns. Retrieved October 2, 2019 .
  4. a b Tilmann P. Gangloff : Götz Schubert, Catterfeld, Neuwöhner / Poser, Meletzky. Fairytale & mysterious at tittelbach.tv , accessed on May 18, 2020.
  5. A commissioner turns a film review at Morgenpost.de , accessed on May 18, 2020.
  6. Sidney Schering: Review of the film at quotenmeter.de , accessed on May 18, 2020.