Weak woman - very strong!
Created: 02/13/2022, 21:30
By: Rudolf Ogiermann
A false confession destroyed her life: Johanna Wokalek as Sara Manzer, here with Eva Löbau (left) and Hans-Jochen Wagner as investigators.
© Benoit Linder / SWR
Has Sara Manzer, who has just been released from prison, become a murderer again?
Or was she innocent in prison?
The "Tatort" commissioners Franziska Tobler (Eva Löbau) and Friedemann Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) have to deal with two cases in "Sara's Confession".
A lot of alcohol, many affairs, a bad reputation - the unloved daughter of a rich father is the ideal victim of a perfidious coup that innocently puts her in prison and destroys her life.
Sara Manzer is the central character in this eighth ARD "crime scene" from the Black Forest, and this film tells her depressing story in a sensitive way from beginning to end.
Shows her trying to regain her footing in freedom,
a deeply hurt, vulnerable woman at the mercy of friend and foe.
Johanna Wokalek is the event in "Sara's Confession", with a face as if armored, as if petrified, and yet in every scene she allows a glimpse into her soul.
The thriller that is built around this biography does not stand up to this theatrical performance.
As strong as her scenes are, for example with the boss, for whom she is fair game, or with the ex-husband, who has long since had a new family, the scenes with the investigators, for which Sara Manzer again for murder is a possibility.
The story about an ex-policeman who is on the trail of the real culprits and therefore has to die is quite well thought out (screenplay: Astrid Kröher), but the cinematic implementation (director: Kai Wessel) is disappointing.
Many scenes with secondary characters like the youthful witnesses or the buyer of the Manzer empire seem strangely uninspired.
This seems to have carried over to Eva Löbau and Hans-Jochen Wagner as Commissioners Franziska Tobler and Friedemann Berg.
At times, their dialogues seem like they've been said, the (running) gags and the technical problems in the police station are silly.
It is also unclear why the badly acted subplot, Berg's confrontation with a filming gaffer, is supposed to be good.
Far too often, the creators only find pictures of perplexed criminals reasoning about the case or cases, in the office or on the streets of Freiburg, then with the obligatory coffee to go.
That, another bad joke, the shit on the inspector's shoe - it acts as a code for the entire episode.
Failed – if it wasn't for Johanna Wokalek.
