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Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt) at the "crime scene": Crazy yourself?
Photo: Thomas Kost/ WDR
This text appeared in its original version for the first broadcast of "Tatort" on May 17, 2020.
The scenario:
When madness leads the investigation: After the murder of the head of a psychiatric ward, Schenk (Dietmar Bär) and Ballauf (Klaus J. Behrendt) search for the perpetrator among the patients.
Is it an advantage or a disadvantage that Ballauf suffers from hallucinations after a traumatic mission?
The highlight:
What begins as a psychiatric critique turns into a twisted thriller about real insanity and false madness.
Not every twist fits, but the audience is properly shaken up.
Directed by Isabel Prahl, who previously dealt
with the hikikomori phenomenon, which is particularly widespread in Japan, in
»
1000 ways to describe rain
« .
The picture:
Anxious wide-eyed eyes in a face drawn with hard black lines: A patient painted a portrait that supposedly represents Inspector Ballauf.
The investigator looks at the picture - and actually looks as despondent as the figure on the paper.
The dialogue:
In the closed room, Ballauf talks to a patient about the murdered director of the clinic:
Inspector: "And Professor Krüger? Did you like it?'
Patient: “In the beginning, yes. But then..."
Commissioner: "Then what?"
Patient: »Krüger calmed me down with his bloody drugs. Although I've been well for a long time."
Inspector: "Why should he have done something like that?"
Patient: »This is the closed ward. Then he can do whatever he wants.«
Inspector: "Could it be that you're just imagining it all?"
Patient: “He always said that too. By denying my illness, I am acknowledging it. Crazy, right?"
The review:
7 out of 10 points.
Although the twists are sometimes very shaky: Challenging psychological play about double bottoms and fragile realities.
The analysis:
Read more here!
»Tatort: Captured«,
Sunday, 8:15 p.m., The First
