The ZDF crime series is in its seventh season. At the beginning, the action revolves around illegal animal trade. A problem that Leo actor Wanja Mues is also involved in privately.
Berlin – With the sad subject of illegal animal transport, the ZDF crime series “A case for two” returns to the screens.
At the start of the seventh season of the stories that have been running since 2014, private detective Leo Oswald (Wanja Mues, “Stralsund”) and lawyer Benni Hornberg (Antoine Monot jr, “Knallerkerle”) both get murdered by poison in the episode “The Wrong Snake” exotic scalp reptiles to do. In the tried and tested mission in Frankfurt am Main this coming Friday (August 27) at 8:15 pm, prosecutor Claudia Strauss alias TV star Bettina Zimmermann (“Bundschuh family”) will also be there again.
The victim of the attack is Max Dreiser (Stephan Weber), who has just come home after a trip to Africa. His pregnant wife Emilia (Anne Schäfer), who is in conflict with him, is suspected. She is in custody, but Benni believes in her innocence. Time is running out to find the right snake and with it the right antidote. Soon Leo and Benni receive help at the zoo, where Dr. Nathalie Schilling (Xenia Tiling) works, internationally renowned snake expert and ex-love of Leo. One trail finally leads to the dubious animal dealer Bernd Gränert (Arved Birnbaum).
Director Florian Eichinger (“My Mother’s Hands”) implemented the action in cool images and with the usual flippant dialogues of the unequal investigators. For the main actor Mues, the animal welfare issue is also a very personal concern. Born in Hamburg, he has been an ambassador for the association “Orang-Utangs in Need”, founded in 2007 by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, since 2019. The star flew to Borneo – at his own expense – to get to know the work with the last of these great apes, which otherwise only exist in Sumatra.
“In the sanctuary I saw the poor condition in which the animals arrive, which people keep in cages that are far too small or as tourist attractions. They will then be nursed up and released back into the nature that has been reforested by the association, ”Mues reported to the German press agency on the phone. Another problem for the animals is that their natural environment, the rainforest, is dwindling drastically for commercial reasons.
For the actor, the orangutangs are also a symbol of our life. “Because they are most similar to us humans,” says the 47-year-old, “and their living space is being destroyed to such an extent that – if things continue like this – they will soon no longer have any living space at all. Then the world’s lungs would be broken. And not only they, but also we humans would stand on the edge. “
During the days of filming on the Main, where Mues has been regularly on duty since 2013 for “Ein Fall für Zwei”, he felt very comfortable again, says the actor, who lives in Berlin with his wife and two sons. “I feel absolutely at home in Frankfurt – it has become my work home.” “I find the people very open – you are very well received, even if you are only a guest there. When my sons visit me, for example, we go to the soccer field – we are greeted by name and a handshake and it says, “It’s nice that you are back.” “
It goes with the fact that Frankfurt is increasingly playing its own role in the series. “In the meantime, there is an increasing focus on the city, the people and the history of the city,” says Mues. He reveals that with this regionalization the makers are meeting the wishes of many viewers. dpa
