“Tatort” today with Wotan Wilke Möhring: The “invisible”

“Tatort” with Wotan Wilke Möhring
They Live Among Us But We Don’t See Them: A Mystery About The “Invisibles”

In the new “crime scene” Thorsten Falke and Julia Grosz investigate refugees who are not tolerated. A film worth seeing, which, however, quickly loses interest in the actual criminal case.

What’s the matter?

An unknown person is found dead in a truck in Hanover, apparently it is part of a smuggling network. Federal police officers Thorsten Falke (Wotan Wilke Möhring) and Julia Grosz (Franziska Weisz) travel to the capital of Lower Saxony to investigate the case. And come across Jon Makoni (Alois Moyo), who is missing his 17-year-old son. The man is so desperate that he turns to the police, even though he and his wife Hope do not have a toleration status in Germany. Falke gets in touch with Jon – in the hope of being able to clarify the death.

Why is the “Hidden” case worth it?

Tens of thousands of people live in Germany without a valid residence status. They fled from hunger, war or political repression. Left their old homes behind in hopes of a better life. They work hard to make a living – and some of them are not even tolerated by the authorities. Using the example of Jon Makoni and his family, this “crime scene” tells the story of the lives of these people and of their own informal economy, which has grown up around them and which partly shamelessly exploits their emergency situation.

The authors Julia Drache and Sophia J. Ayissi as well as director Neelesha Barthel take a lot of time to talk about the living conditions of the “impatients”, which are also not socially accepted. “You’re not German,” says Hope Makoni to her husband, “even if you always speak German.” She suspects that she will never belong. “Sometimes I just want to go home,” she says, exasperated. But the way back remains blocked: in Zimbabwe, the family is threatened by state persecution. They are moving insights into the existence of people who live among us and whom we hardly notice.

What bothers?

At the beginning of the film there is a dead body. But who it is – that will not be pursued further here. The “crime scene” quickly loses interest in solving the death. So this episode moves quite far away from the crime genre.

The commissioners?

The atmosphere in this film is tense – in keeping with the serious subject. There is only one flash of comedy: During a night observation, Thorsten Falke tells his colleague a joke – which Julia Grosz enjoys immensely. “Two Celts are running through the snow. One says: ‘Fucking cold.’ Says the other: ‘Fucking Celts yourself.'” Otherwise, the two investigators approach the matter with the necessary seriousness.

Turn on or off?

Even if there were certainly more gripping criminal cases: The human drama that this “crime scene” tells about deserves to be heard. Because tens of thousands in Germany are like the people portrayed here.

Falke and Grosz recently determined in these cases: