about: Tatort: Wolfsstunde" (Crimescene: Wolfhour") first aired Sunday, November 9th 2008, 0815pm.
A brutal rape-murder at a young Student-Of-The-Rights haunts the actually lovely, small city of Münster in the German state of North-Rhine-Westphalen. The killer held the victim tied-up for hours in her apartment, watching her TV, drinking and eating, using the toilet, before unbinding her (apparently to gain lust out of her fight), abusing her and strangulating her to death. The crime is shown in flashy cuts.
Particularly shocking is also a brief sequence after the body is found, when Sergeant Thiel (Axel Prahl) inspects the balcony-door and turns back to the room just to directly look into the half-open eyes of the victim (she stares into the camera). Thiel then in 1st person-camera - tumbles out of the house, leaving the CSIs at work.
The prime suspect is the victim's ex-lover, a professional photographer, who spent several years in war-zones and crisis-regions and is obviously mentally unstable.
Thiel is reminded of a former girlfriend who also suffered a sexual violation, resulting she had to end their relation and as he reveals after a while- committed suicide. Also an earlier unsolved case comes to his mind and soon he clings to a "serial"-theory; as the only one from his squad. His only "evidence" for that is the young and attractive bank-employee Anna Schäfer (intense performed by Katherina Lorenz) who reported an intruder a couple of months ago, who's work-pattern fits into this one's. She appears suffering from PTSD, so Thiel carefully but clumsy continues questioning her until she admits it was a rape, something she held back ashamed. But apart of Thiel no one believes Anna, confirming what she already feared: nobody believes a rape-victim. Neither Thiel's Detective Nadeshda Krusenstern (Friederike Kempten), nor "Chief M.E." (german: "Leiter der Rechtsmedizin") Professor Karl-Friedrich Boerne (Jan-Josef Liefers) support the theory of a serial-rapist-killer.
Boerne is Thiel's landlord, house-mate and professional and stylistic counterpart in all the episodes and much of the humorous moments mainly derive out of the contrast between Thiel's proletarian and sometimes rude nature and Boerne's snobistic manners and almost anachronistic and old-fashioned virtues. But the funny tones, which were characteristic for the Münster-"tatorte" were reduced here to underline the danger, which in such a small city can affect everybody. This is also stressed by a sequence when halfway through the episode the killer takes photographs of potential next victims on the streets all beautiful young women.
Sergeant Thiel is actually already on his way to the train for Hamburg to watch his favorite Football-team, the legendary FC-St. Pauli, when he instinctively turns on the heel to rush to Anna Schäfers's apartment, sensing another assault. Highly dramatic is the climax, when Thiel receives a mobile-call from Boerne while observing Schäfer's house and turns away from the house (to hear the call properly) just the moment when signs of a struggle appear at the window. Fortunately Boerne calls from the criminals flat and gives the essential hints for Thiel to instantly bust the apartment. A little unclear remains the question, how Thiel armed merely with a fire-extinguisher- manages to break-down the solid safety-door (three locks and one block) to rescue the Damsel-In-Distress. But otherwise: who knows what a frustrated Footballfan is capable to do when -after weeks of investigative failures and public and institutional pressure- he's forced to skip the game to solve the case. Thereby in a sense of political incorrectness- I admit I found it quite refreshing to watch Thiel beating the hell outta the villain, even bashing his head against the wall. A display of police-brutality rarely seen that directly in "tatort" in purpose not to disgrace factual police-work.
The episode's title is a little misleading. During the autopsy, Boerne mysteriously states as "Time of death: 03:30a.m. ... the Wolfe's Hour..." and the viewer expects some relevance for the case, considering a murderer with a mythology-based crime-pattern (as for instance in "The January Man" with Kevin Kline or many other modern thrillers), but it doesn't really mean anything particular, except sounding martial. But *imho* this ain't no valuable point-of-critic. The story is well-laid and easy to follow, there are no twists or turns which appear constructed or implausible nevertheless the ending ain't predictable. The atmosphere is dark and menacing and transports the urge and the pressure the detective has to take from the public, the former victim Schäfer, his colleagues and his own biography.
Trivia: in a sense of dramatical irony, Thiel wears his FC. St. Pauli - jersey while fighting the rapist in Schäfer's apartment. The shirt shows the team-brand, bold subscribed with the word "RETTER" (= "saviour" or "rescuer"). This jersey was a special print which was part of a fund-raising campaign in 2003 to rescue the broke team.
Another rooting goes out for Axel Prahl's courage to show a full-frontal-nude take (and: No, I'm straight.) when he rushes out of the shower and through his flat to find the phone. And he is anything but a "model". Prahl hereby outscores former "tatort"-detective-legend 'Horst Schimanski' (Götz George) who "showed the moon" (in the episode "tatort: Zweierlei Blut/Blood-Differ" from the early 80s) after been beaten up by a gang of Football-hooligans and left naked in the Duisburg-Footballstadium centerfield.
"By the way: St. Pauli won 2:0..." Boerne comforts a strung-out Thiel during their way home.
A brutal rape-murder at a young Student-Of-The-Rights haunts the actually lovely, small city of Münster in the German state of North-Rhine-Westphalen. The killer held the victim tied-up for hours in her apartment, watching her TV, drinking and eating, using the toilet, before unbinding her (apparently to gain lust out of her fight), abusing her and strangulating her to death. The crime is shown in flashy cuts.
Particularly shocking is also a brief sequence after the body is found, when Sergeant Thiel (Axel Prahl) inspects the balcony-door and turns back to the room just to directly look into the half-open eyes of the victim (she stares into the camera). Thiel then in 1st person-camera - tumbles out of the house, leaving the CSIs at work.
The prime suspect is the victim's ex-lover, a professional photographer, who spent several years in war-zones and crisis-regions and is obviously mentally unstable.
Thiel is reminded of a former girlfriend who also suffered a sexual violation, resulting she had to end their relation and as he reveals after a while- committed suicide. Also an earlier unsolved case comes to his mind and soon he clings to a "serial"-theory; as the only one from his squad. His only "evidence" for that is the young and attractive bank-employee Anna Schäfer (intense performed by Katherina Lorenz) who reported an intruder a couple of months ago, who's work-pattern fits into this one's. She appears suffering from PTSD, so Thiel carefully but clumsy continues questioning her until she admits it was a rape, something she held back ashamed. But apart of Thiel no one believes Anna, confirming what she already feared: nobody believes a rape-victim. Neither Thiel's Detective Nadeshda Krusenstern (Friederike Kempten), nor "Chief M.E." (german: "Leiter der Rechtsmedizin") Professor Karl-Friedrich Boerne (Jan-Josef Liefers) support the theory of a serial-rapist-killer.
Boerne is Thiel's landlord, house-mate and professional and stylistic counterpart in all the episodes and much of the humorous moments mainly derive out of the contrast between Thiel's proletarian and sometimes rude nature and Boerne's snobistic manners and almost anachronistic and old-fashioned virtues. But the funny tones, which were characteristic for the Münster-"tatorte" were reduced here to underline the danger, which in such a small city can affect everybody. This is also stressed by a sequence when halfway through the episode the killer takes photographs of potential next victims on the streets all beautiful young women.
Sergeant Thiel is actually already on his way to the train for Hamburg to watch his favorite Football-team, the legendary FC-St. Pauli, when he instinctively turns on the heel to rush to Anna Schäfers's apartment, sensing another assault. Highly dramatic is the climax, when Thiel receives a mobile-call from Boerne while observing Schäfer's house and turns away from the house (to hear the call properly) just the moment when signs of a struggle appear at the window. Fortunately Boerne calls from the criminals flat and gives the essential hints for Thiel to instantly bust the apartment. A little unclear remains the question, how Thiel armed merely with a fire-extinguisher- manages to break-down the solid safety-door (three locks and one block) to rescue the Damsel-In-Distress. But otherwise: who knows what a frustrated Footballfan is capable to do when -after weeks of investigative failures and public and institutional pressure- he's forced to skip the game to solve the case. Thereby in a sense of political incorrectness- I admit I found it quite refreshing to watch Thiel beating the hell outta the villain, even bashing his head against the wall. A display of police-brutality rarely seen that directly in "tatort" in purpose not to disgrace factual police-work.
The episode's title is a little misleading. During the autopsy, Boerne mysteriously states as "Time of death: 03:30a.m. ... the Wolfe's Hour..." and the viewer expects some relevance for the case, considering a murderer with a mythology-based crime-pattern (as for instance in "The January Man" with Kevin Kline or many other modern thrillers), but it doesn't really mean anything particular, except sounding martial. But *imho* this ain't no valuable point-of-critic. The story is well-laid and easy to follow, there are no twists or turns which appear constructed or implausible nevertheless the ending ain't predictable. The atmosphere is dark and menacing and transports the urge and the pressure the detective has to take from the public, the former victim Schäfer, his colleagues and his own biography.
Trivia: in a sense of dramatical irony, Thiel wears his FC. St. Pauli - jersey while fighting the rapist in Schäfer's apartment. The shirt shows the team-brand, bold subscribed with the word "RETTER" (= "saviour" or "rescuer"). This jersey was a special print which was part of a fund-raising campaign in 2003 to rescue the broke team.
Another rooting goes out for Axel Prahl's courage to show a full-frontal-nude take (and: No, I'm straight.) when he rushes out of the shower and through his flat to find the phone. And he is anything but a "model". Prahl hereby outscores former "tatort"-detective-legend 'Horst Schimanski' (Götz George) who "showed the moon" (in the episode "tatort: Zweierlei Blut/Blood-Differ" from the early 80s) after been beaten up by a gang of Football-hooligans and left naked in the Duisburg-Footballstadium centerfield.
"By the way: St. Pauli won 2:0..." Boerne comforts a strung-out Thiel during their way home.