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August and Axel Milberg as a young and as an old Borowski: Investigations on their own behalf
Photo: Christine Schroeder / NDR
The scenario:
Summer of love, autumn of hate.
A storm tore an oak tree out of the ground, and the skull of a woman's corpse is sticking out of the network of roots.
During the investigation, Commissioner Borowski (Axel Milberg) is confronted with his own past.
The dead is a childhood friend who disappeared on the trip to the legendary Jimi Hendrix concert on Fehmarn in September 1970 and has since been missing.
Apparently she was the victim of a woman-hating sex offender who may have even more victims on her conscience.
The highlight:
Borowski, the flower child?
In the flashbacks, we see Axel Milberg's son August as a young Borowski, who tries to hitchhike to the "Love and Peace" festival in Fehmarn with a colorful flower power sign.
A nice casting gimmick - which, however, cannot hide the fact that the period of more than 50 years between the colorful hippie times and the gloomy present is a bit overwrought: According to the logic of this flashback construction, the commissioner should already be retired.
The picture:
The oak and the corpse: The bones of the victim are attached to the root of the tree, as clearly seen in one scene.
The forensic scientist later says, "The corpse nourishes the tree."
The dialogue:
Borowski and detective Sahin (Almila Bagriacik) talk to an incarcerated serial killer who may have raped and murdered Borowski's childhood friend more than 50 years ago, and show him a victim's photo.
Serial killer: "I had nothing to do with this. I've always just followed my tail without thinking much. Otherwise none of us would be sitting here. But that corpse..."
Inspector: "What about it?"
Serial killer: »He had something in mind. As a master painter, I painted umpteen coats of arms with oak trees. Symbol of strength, constancy, masculinity. Joar, your husband is probably impotent. But that doesn't solve his problem. Reality never touches fantasy. That's why he has to keep doing it."
The song:
Johannes Brahms: "A German Requiem, Opus 45
"
.
An elderly gentleman sits in the basement of his 1960s home, looks at the hunter's memorabilia that his father bequeathed to him and listens to the requiem: "For all flesh is like grass / and all the glory of man / like grass Flowers / The grass has withered / and the flower has fallen".
The review:
7 out of 10 points: despite the shaky narrative construction, it's a chilling swan song to the Summer of Love.
The analysis:
Please read on here!
The lookup:
If you can handle more hard crime thriller stuff, stay seated on the TV couch to watch the final episodes of the series highlight "Your Honor" - or call up the entire production in the ARD media library.
»Crime scene: Borowski and the shadow of the moon«,
Sunday, 8:15 p.m., Das Erste