A doctor was tortured and murdered, and bycatch at the crime scene was the hair of Jessica Sonntag, who had been missing for 15 years. A cold case apparently takes on a new twist here: the family could face an unexpected re-encounter with the young woman who was believed to be dead; this perspective – on the surface – evokes different reactions from everyone. The mother sees her deepest longing fulfilled; she always believed that her daughter was still alive. The father had long since settled into the idea that at least “it happened quickly, that she didn’t have to suffer for long” – he fears that the hope and disappointment will now begin again. The brother is brought up to date through awkward telephone conversations with his mother. But the mother’s quiet euphoria, the father’s irritation, and the brother’s perplexity are not permanent and resilient emotions; as the case progresses, everything in this family constellation rearranges itself.
Katrin König advises not to smoke weed so much, “it makes your head a bit stupid”
The Rostock police call “Only ghosts” develops into a family tragedy, even a revenge drama, as in the old days crime scene-Time the famous episode “Three Nooses”. The Sonntag family has to deal with the ghosts of the past, as does investigator Katrin König (Anneke Kim Sarnau), who someone puts a small plastic Indian in the mailbox as a symbol of the fact that the past never goes away. Ms. König is also still getting used to her new colleague Melly Böwe (Lina Beckmann), so there’s a lot to deal with beyond the crime. However, director Andreas Herzog and author Astrid Ströher remain well focused on the case, and even though the past plays such an important role, they do not get lost in the maze of different narrative levels.
And although Mother Sonntag (Judith Engel), who lives in her own in-between world, floats ethereally through the panorama in a rather exhausting way over the long term, the harsh Rostock climate also provides the appropriate counterweight and the necessary grounding. The fact that life is not a pony farm is clearly illustrated, and even when researching the stoner scene, Katrin König, heroine of all the stranded people, stays completely with herself and gives those present the well-intentioned advice not to smoke so much weed, please. “That makes my head a bit stupid.”
Despite all the severity, the sequence in the filthy shared apartment is one of the light highlights of this crime thriller, because one of the residents opens the can of beer in style and toasts the others in the style of the house. In Rostock they say: “Cheers, yeah.”
Police call 110, Sunday, 8.15 p.m., Das Erste.
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