Review of the crime thriller with Wotan Wilke Möhring

In the crime scene ‘Tyrannicide’, Inspector Falke must investigate the disappearance of a dictator’s son from an elite German boarding school. The case takes him deep into the world of the rich and powerful, while the dictator of the fantasy state of Orinaca is on a state visit to Germany.

In “Tatort: ​​Tyrannenmord” (first broadcast in 2022), Inspector Falke (Wotan Wilke Möhring) is faced with several tasks that the ex-punk is clearly struggling with. While the head of state of the South American fantasy state of Orinaca is visiting Germany – a dictator – the son of an important member of his government disappears from his German boarding school. The 17-year-old’s mother is German, as is his girlfriend Hanna (Valerie Stoll), whom the boy met at the elite boarding school. Falke has to investigate the children of rich parents and also deal with the representatives of an authoritarian unjust regime. All of this without his colleague Julia Grosz (Franziska Weisz), who is supposed to “secure” the state visit of the Orinaca despot in the background.

To ensure that Falke doesn’t wander through the Lower Saxon countryside alone, he is supported by the young village policeman Felix Wacker (Arash Marandi). He is a nice guy, but he talks a little too much to Falke, who is a little tense and seems to be in a bad mood. And another “strange” guest is lurking around the boarding school grounds of headmistress Marie Bergson (Katarina Gaub) and her husband Andreas (Christian Erdmann), who works there as a teacher: bodyguard Carlos (José Barros), who was supposed to guard the boy, but was knocked out with knockout drops shortly before he disappeared. Now the villain fears that his government will punish him for his faux pas – which is why he is also investigating – using his own methods.

Diaktators with Western-humanistic education

Screenwriter Jochen Bitzer (Grimme Prize for “The Case of Jakob von Metzler”) and director Christoph Stark, who previously shot several “Bloch” episodes with Dieter Pfaff, who died far too young, went to school together – which may be an advantage when designing a boarding school film. Bitzer was inspired for his screenplay by biographies of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, who went to school in Switzerland, and the Syrian Bashar Al-Assad, who trained as an ophthalmologist in London. “Apparently, parental influences are stronger than the influence of humanistic education,” says Bitzer of his background research. “Education in the West is all well and good, but when it comes to preserving one’s own power and the family’s wealth, the children become authoritarian.”

However, this “crime scene” is less about what will become of the boy in the elite boarding school in Lower Saxony. Falke’s “fish out of water” mission is more about how the humanistically “thinking” boarding school deals with how the bodyguard from the security apparatus of a despot is accepted into this system – and what rights he takes on. The clash of these worlds would have provided material for interesting stories, but the crime thriller ultimately makes little of it.

First “crime scene” from the Weserbergland

The interesting thought experiment surrounding the legitimacy of murdering a tyrant is increasingly lost in an uninspired whodunit in which plot threads and characters seem to be increasingly arbitrarily linked over the course of the 90 minutes. Only José Barros, a Hamburg actor with Chilean roots, manages to arouse real interest in his character as the dazzling bodyguard.

The NDR crime thriller was filmed in the Weserbergland region – the first “Tatort” ever, by the way. The walls of the Corvey monastery served as the walls of the boarding school in the film. A place of cultural and historical significance: Hoffmann von Fallersleben, author of the lyrics of the German national anthem, worked here as a librarian. His grave is also next to the church. Fallersleben was anything but an upright democrat. He was considered an anti-Semite – and he hated the French. Democracy – and its personnel – are not that simple.

“Tyrannenmord” is the 16th mission for Wotan Wilke Möhring as Inspector Falke. Three more films have since been shown: The most recently broadcast “Tatort: ​​Was bleibt” (first broadcast in January 2024) was the last case for Franziska Weisz as Julia Grosz. At the end of 2023, filming took place in Hanover, Hamburg and the surrounding area under the working title “Tatort: ​​Die kalteste Maschine”. In it, Falke investigates a knife attack in Hanover together with Anaïs Schmitz (Florence Kasumba). Schmitz usually investigates alongside Charlotte Lindholm (Maria Furtwängler) in Göttingen. The broadcast is planned for the first half of 2025. On Sunday, September 8, Das Erste will show another “Tatort” repeat at 8:15 p.m. with “Die Rache an der Welt” (2022). The first new “Tatort” is planned for Sunday, September 15th.

Crime Scene: Tyrannicide – Sun. 01.09. – ARD: 8.20 p.m.