Tatort – The cold and the dead
A weekend in Berlin: In search of an unforgettable night, partygoers and revelers roam the wintry streets.
A young woman finds a suitable date via a dating app in the couple Dennis Ziegler (Vito Sack) and Julia Hoff (Milena Kaltenbach). The next morning, a body is found near Dennis’ apartment. Her face is disfigured so that identification seems impossible.
A missing person’s report and a subsequent DNA match reveal to commissioners Nina Rubin (Meret Becker) and Robert Karow (Mark Waschke) that the dead woman is medical student Sophia Bader.
When Rubin and Karow deliver the death news to Marianne (Andreja Schneider) and Helmut Bader (Rainer Reiners), the parents deny that the dead woman is their daughter and deny that she used dating portals.
To the surprise of the commissioners, Dennis Ziegler and Julia Hoff appear at the police station. They explain that after having consensual sex with Sophia, they broke up the same evening. But innocent Dennis does not seem to be. A thick police file attests to allegations of arson, assault and rape. However, he was never convicted.
The suspicion quickly arises that his parents – patrolwoman Doris (Jule Böwe) and security specialist Claus Ziegler (Andreas Döhler) – have repeatedly managed to get their son off the hook. And again the fingers of the parents seem to be involved, the investigators run into a wall. Rubin and Karow must use drastic methods to break through the Ziegler family’s psychogram – and to understand why Sophia’s parents so vehemently deny their daughter’s death.
Credits
Cast: Merit Becker, Mark Waschke, Jule Böwe, Tan Caglar, Andreas Döhler, Vito Sack, Milena Kaltenbach, Heinrich Berger, Elisabeth Baulitz, Florentine Schara, Andreja Schneider, Rainer Reiners, Laura Sophie Warachewicz, Susann Toni Wagner, Sebastian Freigang a.o.
Screenplay: Markus Busch
Director: Torsten C. Fischer
Camera: Theo Bierkens
Composer: Monobeat (Warner Poland, Wolfgang Glum)
Editing: Heike Parplies
Production design: Jörg Prinz
Costume: Anne-Gret Oehme
Sound: Siegfried Fischer
Production Management: Richard Mellert (Schiwago Film), Jörgen Radach (rbb)
Producer: Philipp Goeser
Producer: Schiwago Film (Marcos Kantis, Martin Lehwald)
Commissioning Editor: Josephine Schröder-Zebralla (rbb)
Birgit Titze (ARD Degeto)
Production year: 2021