"Tatort" Ein mörderisches Märchen (2001)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Manuel Siebenmann

Writer:

Daniel Martin Eckhart (writer)

TV Series:

"Tatort" (1970)

Original Air Date:

4 March 2001 (Season 1, Episode 464)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Brain Tumor | Psychopath | Serial Killer | Terminal Illness | Forest

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Miroslav Nemec	...	Kriminalhauptkommissar Ivo Batic
Udo Wachtveitl	...	Kriminalhauptkommissar Franz Leitmayr
Michael Fitz	...	Carlo Menzinger
Hilmar Thate	...	Ludwig Gruber
Yasmina Djaballah	...	Maria Santiago (as Jasmina Djaballah)
Hans-Georg Nenning	...	Walter Klett
Ellen Schwiers	...	Klara Werdin
Johannes Silberschneider	...	Paul Balzer
Gilbert von Sohlern	...	Hannes Wenger
Johannes Thanheiser	...	Wolfgang Wachter
Gaspar Cano	...	Ernesto Santiago
Pamela Marquardt	...	Anna Santiago
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Bibring	...	Bauer
Renate Grosser	...	Alte Frau
Joseph Saxinger	...	Alter in Waldheim
Maria Singer	...	Alte in Waldheim

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Filming Locations:

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR)

one of the best German crime stories ever

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The film starts with a corpse found in the middle of a clearing. And the murderer is easily found as a woman who always passes this place at exactly the same time saw the murderer's car. It's a joiner who mostly does marionettes. But here the plot only starts. The joiner speaks in riddles taken from (German) fairy tales. And soon they discover another corpse and that a girl that disappeared at the same time is not taken by her father. What makes this movie interesting is the unpretentious way suspense is gained from this fairy tale back-ground and the ironic distance the movie keeps. Eg there is a investigation scene in a small village near Munich and the atmosphere is gained from the similarity of the images to high-noon scenes. The hard light of arriving bad weather and the whistling sounds of the wind attribute to this imaginary. And even better: Differing from far too many German detective stories of the 'Tatort'-series (especially those extremely bad ones with Sabine Postel as Inspector 'Inga Lürsen') the movies sticks to the plot and doesn't give us a lot of information about the existing or not existing private-lifes of the inspectors we don't care to get.