Even the intro of this one police call summarizes what it is essentially about. The new inspector Cris Blohm (Johanna Wokalek) takes the subway to work, with her in the compartment are the woman with the headscarf, the fully tattooed long-haired guy, the Asian-born punk, the skinny Lederhosen Bavarian, the trans person, the Gen-Z girl . Everyone is busy with their smartphone, everyone is looking at the camera at the end, but no one is talking to anyone else. Modern society, in all its diversity and speechlessness, jerks from here to there, the inspector then has to get out, station Haderner Stern.
The former ZDF television drama boss Hans Janke said years ago that the effect of communication is overestimated: “You talk because you understand each other, and not so that you understand each other.” This true statement is confirmed every day now, everyone is housed in separate “Little Boxes” (that’s what this episode is called). And even the so-called superwoken, who actually want to create a fairer world, make communication difficult with their unforgiveness. The story by director Dror Zahavi and author Stefan Weigl is about an employee at an institute for postcolonial studies. The man is dead and someone has written “Rapist” on his back. But is he really a rapist? The approachable, likeable Commissioner Blohm investigates in university circles with her colleagues Dennis Eden (origin: Bavaria) and Otto Ikwuakwu (origin: Nigeria) and ventures into a combat zone that only those who can decipher the relevant terms can see: intersexuality , identity politics, anti-discriminatory language acts, interdependent power relations, classism. One wrong word, one unfortunate gesture – you have violated boundaries and are out. As a police officer anyway: “Anyone who doesn’t conform to the white, heteronormative majority society has bad experiences with the police,” says a lecturer who – quite deliberately – is as exaggerated as the entire institute staff.
When people can no longer find a language for each other, the commissioners find a song for each other
At some point the police chief asks the new commissioner: “How do you get along with Mr. Ikwuakwu?” The inspector replied: “Good. I like people who don’t have a sense of humor.”
“Little Boxes” is more satire than crime thriller. This Police call wants to use irony to loosen the rigidities of the discourse. And when people out there can no longer find a language for each other, the commissioners in the presidium always find a song for each other.
Not everything works out in this worth seeing Police call, whose humor won’t appeal to everyone. But it is demanding and surprising; the team always communicates well with each other. And author Weigl has written down a few sentences for his actors that can actually help them get ahead in today’s hardened debates. At one point, Inspector Blohm says to an angry woman: “Is the anger actually real? Or is it just that I have the feeling that you are right because you are so angry?” Pretty to the point.
Police call 110: Little Boxes, Das Erste, Sunday, 8:15 p.m.
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