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Ivo Batic (Miroslav Nemec, left) and Franz Leitmayr (Udo Wachtveitl): Investigations close to self-dissolution

Photo: Hagen Keller / BR

This text was published in its original version for the first broadcast in October 2016.

The scenario:

Policing in the hamster wheel. At the entrance of a supermarket, a family man is stabbed, there are plenty of witnesses. But Batic (Miroslav Nemec) and Leitmayr (Udo Wachtveitl) still don't make any progress. Whenever one detail seems to fit into the next, the chain of evidence collapses again. And while the detectives become more and more obsessed with the case, the audience gets into a dead end again and again when combining them.

The highlight:

Flagship investigations at full throttle standstill. So many witnesses who are interrogated. So many bodies that are checked. So many rubbish bins that are rummaged through – rarely has the tenacious flow of research that investigations can represent been so accurately depicted. At the same time, the two genre experts Erol Yesilkaya (script) and Sebastian Marka (director), who were also responsible for last Sunday's Dresden horror »Tatort«, have incorporated a few furious suspense elements including a slasher scene.

The picture:

Final destination karaoke bar. Shortly before the finale, Leitmayr shovels peanuts into himself in a karaoke bar, rocking his head as if suffering from hospitalism, while drunken people around him howl their favorite songs.

The song:

»Nothing Else Matters« by Metallica. The powerless heavy metal ballad is crowed, over the karaoke system, as the powerless detectives sink at the counter.

The dialogue:

Batic and Leitmayr try to reconstruct the course of events with the help of witnesses. One says of the perpetrator: "A strong man with a beard." Says another: "A rather small man. A southern type, with all his movements, a hot-blooded man." Says a third, sounding a little in love: "A colored man, such a handsome." In the end, the detectives have as many descriptions of perpetrators as there are witnesses.

The rating:

8 out of 10 points. Meticulous investigative work and blatant shock elements: This »crime scene« from 2016 is a tour of the working world and a fear-monger in one. It's worth the second sighting.

The analysis:

Please read on here!

»Crime Scene: The Truth«, Sunday, 20.15 p.m., Das Erste