“Crime Scene: Masks”
How is the new Dortmund thriller?
“Tatort: Masken” (from left): The inspectors Martina Bönisch (Anna Schudt) and Peter Faber (Jörg Hartmann) with KTU specialist Sebastian Haller (Tilmann Strauss) and forensic doctor Dr. Greta Leitner (Sybille Schedwill) at the crime scene.
© WDR / Zeitsprung pictures / Thomas Kost
In the “crime scene: masks”, the Dortmund investigators have to solve the death of a police officer. A very emotional case for Faber and Bönisch.
In the new Dortmund case “Tatort: Masken” (November 28th, 8:15 pm, the first) Peter Faber (Jörg Hartmann, 51), Martina Bönisch (Anna Schudt, 47), Rosa Herzog (Stefanie Reinsperger, 33) and Jan Pawlak (Rick Okon, 32) investigating the death of a colleague.
This is what “Tatort: Masks” is all about
The 28-year-old Nicolas Schlüter (Daniel Kötter) does not come back from his morning jogging session: A car hit the police chief. Schlueter was about to be promoted, he was popular at the police station and had good friends, his wife Simone is expecting their first child. There does not seem to be any evidence of a murderous motive or a suspect. And the bruises that Schlüter sustained a few days before his death, according to Simone Schlüter, can be traced back to a riding accident.
Peter Faber, Martina Bönisch, Rosa Herzog and Jan Pawlak investigate in all directions – including at the police station in Dortmund-Hörde. There Martina Bönisch meets an old friend: At the police school, she got along very well with Katrin Steinmann (Anne Ratte-Polle, born 1974). Today the head of the guard stands protectively in front of her team.
As it turns out, in the weeks before his death, Nicolas Schlueter had targeted a doctor in particular: Dr. Johannes Oberländer (Simon Böer, 47), who has made a name for himself as a seminar leader. Men should be able to learn from him how to be well received by as many women as possible.
Is it worth switching on?
Yes! Especially for Faber fans, because it shows a new, almost carefree and soulful side. On the one hand, Bönisch’s Tête-à-Tête with KTUler Sebastian Haller (Tilmann Strauss) irritates him. But that’s not all, in this crime thriller Faber even has a passionate scene … “After nine years of film, the detective gets his first love scene and I’m proud that I was allowed to direct it,” says director Ayse Polat (born 1970 ).
The two newer investigators, Rosa Herzog and Jan Pawlak, are also gaining in profile. Herzog helps the single parent Pawlak look after his daughter. The question of where the girl’s mother has gone leaves room for a horizontal narrative thread.
And the topic of pick-up artists is also quite suitable for a crime thriller, as was already shown in March in “Tatort: Borowski and the fear of white men”. In “Tatort: Masken” there are some small porn scenes with unusual punchlines, the scenes with the seduction artist guru Dr. Johannes Oberländer in and of itself seems rather constructed.
A scene that fits in with the “International Day Against Violence against Women”, which is held every year on November 25th, also seems somewhat uninvolved. The little discussion that ensues in the crime thriller about guilt and innocence of domestic violence is worth listening to.
It is also not entirely clear why the head of the department – embodied by the multiple award-winning Anne Ratte-Polle, who is also a strong player here – is on patrol at night alone. Apart from such details, this Dortmund crime thriller is again well worth seeing.