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"Police Call 110: Monster Mother" with Maria Simon: Of Mothers and Monsters

2021-01-29T14:13:44.649Z


Farewell in aggro mode: In her last »police call«, Maria Simon, as Commissioner Lenski, is taken hostage by a mother who has lost her mind.


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From mother to mother: Louise Bronski (Luzia Oppermann) has taken Olga Lenski (Maria Simon) hostage.

Photo: Oliver Feist / rbb

A young hooded woman storms the "Regiobank Oderbruch", a mixture of a savings bank and a stand-up café in nowhere in Brandenburg.

The attacker pulls a pistol, a warning shot goes into the ceiling, Fuffis and tens go into a jute bag.

The attack is a complete success, the young woman seems surprised herself, she quickly grabs a couple of lollipops from a snack glass.

It is a souvenir for the person waiting outside in the getaway car: the one-year-old daughter, who receives the booty from the Maxi-Cosi with wide eyes.

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German-Polish investigation: Lenski with her colleague Adam Raczek (Lucas Gregorowicz) at Louise's mother

Photo: Oliver Feist / rbb

The entry is furious.

It takes barely 60 seconds to get to the heart of the drama in all its sadness and all its madness.

This is about the great love a young mother has for her child.

And about the great inability to live up to this love.

Unfortunately, it remains the only furious scene in this "police call," which is the last one with Maria Simon as Commissioner Olga Lenski.

Farewell after ten years

Simon worked for 15 episodes, since 2011, first with Horst Krause in the interior of Brandenburg, then for the last five years with Lucas Gregorowicz in the border area with Poland.

Gregorowicz remains loyal to the crime series, in future he will form a German-Polish team of investigators with his colleague André Kaczmarczyk for the "police call".

The farewell to Simon has long been known, it did not come as a complete surprise.

Simon is one of the best actresses of her generation, but as Commissioner Lensky she often fell short of her capabilities.

Their play often appeared throttled - even when the plot was drastically unleashed, as most recently in the ultra-brutal episode "Holy shall you be!" About Catholic fundamentalism.

Perhaps Simon's reluctance was also due to the scripts, some were really outrageous.

The farewell sequence seems as if those responsible wanted to make sure that the leading actress cannot pull the handbrake.

You send Simons Lenski on a violent road trip with the bank robber from the opening scene: two years have passed since the attack at the beginning of the film, Louise Bronski (Luzia Oppermann) spent the time in prison.

Now she has apparently killed an employee of the youth welfare office who did not want to tell her where the daughter is staying.

Lenski, who actually wanted to go on vacation with her own daughter, is drawn into the case - and soon finds herself hostage of the alleged murderer.

Criminals without impulse control

Mother animal, let off the leash: Regardless of losses, Louise rages with her prisoner Lenski to the foster family, where she suspects the beloved child.

She has no impulse control, is helplessly exposed to her aggressions and autoaggressions.

Even her own mother was afraid of Louise, all the care facilities had broken their teeth on her.

You have to imagine Louise like a slightly older version of Benni in "Systemsprenger", the arthouse surprise hit about a girl whose urge to destroy and self-destruct could not be stopped by any therapeutic or educational measures.

In the "police call", Commissioner Lenski takes on the role of mediator.

Can the mother Olga find an access to the mother Louise to get her to divert?

But at the latest with this question, the construct of "monster mother" (written and directed by Christian Bach) collapses.

Lenski once warned, looking at Louise's daughter: "Don't you understand how incredibly traumatic that is for Lilly?"

It is a sentence that sums up the dilemma of the crime thriller: the commissioner neither finds access to the emotional world of others, nor does the film find a way to portray it.

There are no short, quiet moments like in “Systemsprenger”, where the audience suddenly feels very close to the protagonist.

Where you despair of it because you have given yourself up to the illusion that you can understand it.

This ambiguity can only be found in the intro of "Monstermutter".

So that the end is not made public before it is broadcast on Sunday - at the “Tatort” at the turn of the year, in which Christian Ulmen died the detective's death, the bang was lost in this way - ARD only released the first 75 minutes for viewing.

An evaluation can only be provisional.

On a psychological level, "Monster Mother" (as of Friday) appears relatively flat: little mother, a lot of monsters.

Evaluation (provisional):

4 out of 10 points

"Police Call 110: Monster Mother"

, Sunday, 8:15 pm, Das Erste

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

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