Some people come across as confident and controlled in a way that is almost arrogant. It is not uncommon for it to be successful men who have banished doubt from their lives and live for their job. They grow with their tasks until the day comes when an unexpected event throws things off balance. Judge Michael Jacobi is such a man, he is considered incorruptible, an authority. And that’s how he appears in the first part of the series co-produced by ARD and ORF Your Honor (Director David Nawrath): One appreciates this lawyer, who has made a name for himself as a guardian of the rule of law and sentenced a prominent Serbian clan chief to a long prison sentence; when in doubt, however, one avoids him. Respect should not be confused with affection.
An initial irritation is indicated when Judge Jacobi suddenly has a black spot on his pristine white shirt as he leaves the courthouse. The fountain pen has leaked, which encourages Jacobi to get busy at the sink – but the stain just won’t go away. But that’s it for the imagery, because from now on everything happens very quickly.
From one second to the next, the judge’s self-image falls apart when his son, just of age, hits a motorcyclist with his car and commits a hit-and-run: The victim is, of all people, the son of the Serbian mafia boss whom Jacobi brought to prison. The judge is shocked when the stubborn teenager confesses to the crime. Jacobi knows that the Serbs have a score to settle. They will destroy him and his son as soon as the truth comes out.
Jacobi is terrified – and determined to stay in control of what is happening
What luck for this six-parter that Sebastian Koch is a damn clever actor, a master of nuances and psychological fine-tuning: His face shows the whole existential shock, the naked fear – Jacobi’s wife took her own life years ago , the son is all he has left except his career. And at the same time there is this wild determination to remain in control of what is happening, a barely suppressed urge to self-destruction, almost like in a Shakespearean play. Judge Jacobi decides to take the risk and acts more and more hectically, setting the wrong tracks, covering up the tracks and forcing his son Julian to be silent. “You have no idea how hard it is to keep things to yourself,” says Jacobi, half pleading, half threatening. Omertà, the principle of honorable society.
In search of the truth: Inspector Kirchner (Ursula Strauss) interviews Uncle Jova (Ercan Durmaz), the brother of the clan boss.
(Photo: ARD Degeto/ORF/SquareOne Product/ARD Degeto/ORF/SquareOne Product)
Even the Israeli thriller series kvodo with a judge who risks everything for his son was a well-received success with the public. After that original, Bryan Cranston got caught up in the US remake your honor in an ever denser web of lies. So now the German-Austrian production is trying Your Honor in the father-son drama. The setting is Innsbruck, surrounded by high mountains, where, alongside the Serbian clan, a second local mafia is doing business, led by a meat wholesaler (Tobias Moretti), who is well connected in politics. Judge Jacobi’s unsuccessful attempt to secretly dispose of the damaged car triggers a chain reaction and a bloody gang war begins.
The six-part series is also well cast in the supporting roles: Ursula Strauss is the intrepid opponent of the increasingly nervous judge as the commissioner, Paula Beer shows dark determination as the daughter of the clan boss, the young Taddeo Kufus convinces as a sensitive judge’s son who would like to tell the truth, but can not. Gerti Drassl is also frighteningly good as the head of a family of neglected petty criminals, who lives in seclusion on a mountain slope – this mother too only wants the best for her sons, she too makes the wrong decisions. One of the strengths of the screenplay by David Marian and David Nawrath is that the social milieus become increasingly tangled until you can no longer distinguish those left behind from the people with money, influence and status. The latter sit in their high-tech domiciles and look at the display of the surveillance cameras. But a safe life? There isn’t.
Can you evade the revenge cartel? “You should be free, your children should also be free,” says the Serbian patron to his daughter, who then puts herself entirely at the service of the family – the scene where she joins the arrogant mother of her smooth-brushed partner in the gourmet restaurant threatened by the steak knife is one of the most memorable of this series.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that the scenery in Your Honor more often to the Sky production The passport remembered, another dark thriller on the frontier of crime. The nocturnal journeys on the Brenner motorway, the frequent changes in the weather in the barren winter landscape, the deadly rendezvous in the dense mountain forest are the opposite of mountain doctor-Idyll. This Tyrol is a high-tech location and farming country, friendly to the outside world and at the same time totally screwed up. A nightmare, but absolutely gorgeous.
Your Honor, Saturday, April 9, 8:15 p.m. on ARD (episodes 1 to 4), Sunday, April 10, 9:45 p.m. (episodes 5 and 6). From April 2nd in the ARD media library.