Who murdered Chris? Franziska Tobler (Eva Löbau) and Friedemann Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) investigate. Photo: Linder/SWR Linder/SWR ©
Some deal and gamble to make money quickly, others risk their lives for more clicks - the young people in the new ARD Black Forest "Tatort", which is set in Freiburg. And the parents, of course, do not suspect anything. Is that realistic? Probably not! A critique.
Small and big secrets that you have from each other, small and big "sins" that you don't talk about with each other – certainly the absolute normality between the generations. No, young people do not always have to deal or gamble in order to emancipate themselves or to be able to finance their "exit". Unless it's the new ARD "Tatort" from Freiburg, the young are out of control – and the old ones are a little bit.
"The Secret Life of Our Children" – an almost poetic title for a film for which screenwriter Astrid Ströher lumped together everything she could get her hands on. Love between step-siblings, an unhappy gay liaison, crystal meth, more or less well-functioning patchwork families, lies and deception everywhere you look. Ströher and director Kai Wessel have recruited a lot of staff to tell their story, maybe that's why the split-screen is so as not to completely confuse the audience.
But what is supposed to appear innovative conceals an almost frighteningly staid staging, in which the actors usually only recite their sentences. "We are always there for you!" assures the mother, "You have until tonight," threatens the drug lord, "I just wanted to talk to him again," says the man, who then becomes a murderer. They are lifeless figures that the makers only push back and forth here. Emotions either do not take place or are extremely overemphasized.
The commissioner as a surrogate mother
And right in the middle of it all are the commissioners, who should actually despair of their paper dialogues. Of course, the generational conflict that is to be told here is also reflected in them, Eva Löbau as Franziska Tobler has to deal with her difficult niece, who flees from her parents to her. The aunt suspects: "They have to sort something out with each other." Hans-Jochen Wagner alias Friedemann Berg, on the other hand, still quite traditionally, offers to "pull the girl's ears in the classic way". The rest are car journeys, sometimes there, sometimes there, sometimes with, sometimes without blue lights.
A sad soap opera that calls itself a crime thriller and whose author perfidiously denounces those to whom she wanted to give a voice. To suggest that the next generation is doing crooked things in order to make a few good years with the money – in view of the climate catastrophe – is already a strong piece.