The “crime scene” in Freiburg is usually as black as the forest that surrounds the city. “The Reini” is the name of the new case for Tobler and Berg. A trio led by Berg’s brother breaks out of a mental hospital and terrorizes the inspector on his farm. This darkness can be overwhelming.
Home can be very oppressive. Something that sticks to your heart like heavy clay sticks to rubber boots after walking through a damp field. Sunday night crime thriller from the Black Forest is a homegrown film. Stories that might actually be in the mind of the inventor of “Tatort”.
Stories that have a place that almost no one knows about, at least in today’s social, humanitarian and mental conditions. Stories from landscapes where people get lost. Simple stories.
It doesn’t always work well when it’s tried (and it’s tried too rarely). The last time Freiburg inspectors Franziska “Franz” Tobler (Eva Löbau) and Friedemann “Frieder” Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) were out and about in the Black Forest, they stumbled on logic holes and encountered such plot monsters that people started to worry about them. And you don’t like worrying about both.
You have tender feelings for them. You have to like them, the way they like each other, the way they love each other, the way they shy away from what’s really between them. How intimate the two are is played by Löbau and Wagner, who always seem too big for what they are playing.
The inventors have now worked on the 15th murder case from Breisgau, called “Der Reini”. Robert Thalheim had directed “Goldbach” in 2017, and Bernd Lange wrote the book. “Goldbach” is a story in landscape. It’s as hard to remove as mud on rubber boots. There is a lot of forest and a lot of silence and the yard is like a spinning hammer. And dropped out of school. They come from the city and want to be happy. Four children were there. Then one of them died. Almost like a classic local film.
Modder and inspector
“The Reini” is also a school dropout story. Reini’s real name is Reinhard. He is Frieder’s younger brother. Reini escapes from the psychiatric ward with Mika and the silent Luke. They are stranded in the foggy emptiness of the Berg family farm. It was locked, suffocating, the ceiling hung low over your head like clouds over the trees, the property was heavy as clay.
Good luck to anyone who can free themselves from modders. Frieder couldn’t do it. He lives there, he tries to keep his farm alive. And no one knows why. It’s been like this in several cases. And Frieder and Franz misunderstand each other. Franz’s father always talked about something dark, which is why Frieder was not allowed to become head of the police station. There’s something there.
We know what’s at the end of “Reini.” This is catharsis and bedroom play. Cleansing storm. Psychological conflict. Plays as heavy as the earth and strangely light as a feather. Everything that made Frieder strong made Reini sick and small. End up tied up.
And Luke got him out of there. He’s there because he’s cruel and crazy, a sociopath in a cuckoo’s nest. That should happen. He actually wanted to get the money he was owed from a robbery. And then dive in. Run somewhere. Like Reini and Mika to Morocco.
The three came to the yard. On the way they shot a pharmacist, who then lost interest. Frieder comes to his farm. Then everyone is trapped in the castle of their traumas and dreams, which Lange, a great expert in constructing twisted psychological complexes, placed in the Black Forest. Meet each other, collide with each other.
The plot is like a fever curve
In Reini’s childhood space, where freedom seemed possible. In a simple kitchen where violence is rampant. And attack each other. This plot resembles a fever curve; they ruthlessly peeled away each other’s zones of protection like the bark of a pine tree around them. Reini (Felician Hohnloser), who believed until the end that everything would be okay. Frieder, who desperately sought a solution that Lange rejected. Luke, a jackknife of a man, is portrayed by Karsten Antonio Mielke with great audacity as a testosterone-spraying monster that you definitely don’t want to be trapped in somewhere.
A story will end. Concrete slabs play a role that you may not know what they hide, but you suspect that they still play a role. Franz and Frieder look at each other like Kästner’s frail lovers in “Sachliche Romanze,” only they don’t have a cup to stir. The longing for light and relief is great. At least the sun is back. Maybe he can outshine Frieder and Franz. Because we have such tender feelings.
