“Tatort” today from Ludwigshafen with Lena Odenthal: This crime thriller is disturbingly good

“Tatort” from Ludwigshafen
New case for Lena Odenthal: This crime thriller is disturbingly good

Two men are dead, the suspect is a woman. The investigation leads Commissioner Lena Odenthal and her colleague Johanna Stern into the depths of cybercrime – and reveals a moving, personal fate.

What’s the matter?

A dead man is found on the banks of the Rhine. He died of a heart attack, but must have encountered someone before he died: his eyes are red from pepper spray. The detectives Lena Odentahl (Ulrike Folkerts) and Johanna Stern (Lisa Bitter) find out that the dead man’s name was Lukas Ricke and that he was a bank employee in Cologne. So why did he drive to Ludwigshafen in a rental car and stay in a cheap hotel there? There is no trace of his laptop. Just a day later there is a second body, and the parallels to the first case are striking: again it is a dead man on the river, again he came from another federal state in a rental car, again his laptop was stolen. Are Odenthal and Stern dealing with a serial criminal? The first clue leads to Julia da Borg (Bernadette Heerwagen), who was jogging on the banks of the Rhine when the two men died. The woman pretends not to have noticed anything, but her behavior makes the investigators suspicious.

Why is the “Avatar” case worth it?

Just post a quick photo, make a comment in the chat or confirm a friend request: many children and young people today move around in the virtual world as a matter of course. They grew up with the Internet and social media; for many people, an analogue everyday life is no longer imaginable. The film (screenplay: Harald Göckeritz, director: Miguel Alexandre) vividly shows that this type of communication not only has numerous advantages, but also entails unpredictable risks. It’s about cyber grooming and deepfakes, AI-generated chatbots and identity theft: the whole range of cybercrime that leaves not only young people, but often parents as well, perplexed. In all of this, actress Bernadette Heerwagen shines as the overwhelmed mother.

What bothers?

The “crime scene” is exciting and very movingly told. There isn’t really anything to complain about, but the film requires full concentration to understand the context and plot.

The commissioners?

The investigators do their work meticulously – even if Lena Odenthal is once again not very strict about the official regulations: she illegally gains access to a crime scene, argues with the public prosecutor and treats herself to a beer at the station. In addition, the detectives are planning to say goodbye to their colleagues Edith Keller (Annalena Schmidt) and Peter Becker (Peter Espeloer): the assistant and the forensic scientist are retiring after 25 years.

Turn on or off?

Important topic, strong leading actress: You shouldn’t miss the case from Ludwigshafen – even if it doesn’t put you in a good mood.

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