“Tatort” from the Black Forest
Dark journey into the past: Tobler and Berg solve an old case
Friedemann Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) and Franziska Tobler (Eva Löbau) have to clear up an old case in the current “crime scene”.
© SWR/Benoît Linder / ARD
What happened to Rosa Winterfeld ten years ago? When the corpse of a missing student is found, inspectors Tobler and Berg have to open up an old case – and come across a dysfunctional family.
- 4 out of 5 points
- A fairly classic whodunit that stays exciting until the end
What is the “crime scene” about?
A decade ago, Rosa Winterfeld, a teenager and already the mother of a daughter, disappeared without a trace. Now the body has been found near her home village in the Black Forest. The inspectors Friedemann Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) and Franziska Tobler (Eva Löbau) have to reopen an old case – and keep coming across the same three men who have something to do with the crime: Axel Leibing (Tonio Schneider), the Rosa’s boyfriend at the time, Josef Winterfeld (Cornelius Obonya), her father. And his cousin Werner Trödle (Aurel Manthei), who has already served a prison sentence for violence against women.
Why is the “Down in the Valley” case worthwhile?
This “crime scene” (book: Nicole Armbruster, director: Julia Langhof) provides a concentrated and coherent insight into a dysfunctional family structure. In which much remains unsaid and a wall of silence has formed between those involved. Rosa Winterfeld’s daughter grew up with her grandparents, who still don’t tell her that she was given away as a small child. They cut off contact with the child’s father – the reasons for this also remain a secret. This family drama is carried out by great actors, above all Cornelius Obonya and Inka Friedrich as parents, whose faces are deeply inscribed with the pain and years of repression and hiding.
What bothers?
This thriller is told quite conventionally. The classic police work of the investigating inspectors dominates here. On the other hand, there is hardly any action – some viewers may find that a bit boring.
The commissioners?
Jogi Löw, who was born in the Black Forest, always called for “high concentration” before important games with the national team. That describes the collaboration between Franziska Tobler and Friedemann Berg well in this case: the two work on solving the case without any private antics.
ARD-Krimi
“Tatort”: The highlights from 1000 episodes
Turn on or off?
This case is as gloomy as the Black Forest – but still worthwhile. Turn on.
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