The Bregenz Festival with its oversized backdrop on Lake Constance is internationally known. But do threads from a murder, a hostage-taking and an abandoned child come together here?
Bregenz – It is almost biblical how the baby is found in a woven basket near the shore. It was brought into the world by a woman in chains. Candles flicker in their dungeon, dripping from the ceiling.
The little girl’s find has nothing to do with Moses and the Old Testament. Rather, the new episode of the ZDF series “Die Toten vom Bodensee” on Monday (8:15 pm) is about the occult.
The baby was wrapped in a sheet on which someone in a hurry has left a pentagram, a reclining figure eight – the symbol of infinity – and a colored circle on it with soot. In addition the words “caught” and “will die”. And a name: Rita Hafner.
Commissioner Hannah Zeiler and colleague Micha Oberländer thought this woman had been dead for months, a victim of a crime. But the investigation proves: she is the mother of the foundling. “We screwed it up,” says Oberländer. “We’re starting from scratch.”
Under suspicion at the time: Opera star Veit Steindl, who had an extramarital relationship with the dressmaker Hafner. The investigation meant the end of his career at the Bregenz Festival. Nevertheless, he is still sitting on the stage in front of a large clown face from the “Rigoletto” operatic performance. “Find Rita,” he demands of the investigative duo. “You owe her that. And me.”
In fact, the two have to think the old case from scratch. There is also a second dead person. He too drew the lying figure eight just before he was stabbed. In addition, before the murder he had been very interested in the Swedish conquest of Bregenz in 1647 and had also acquired some of the festival props. “He liked everything that was somehow creepy,” says a festival employee.
When the dead man’s ex-lover turns up, who was once connected to Inspector Oberländer, it becomes almost confusing: the number of suspects is growing, they have different motives. The audience has to keep an eye on the history of Sweden as well as the enigmatic symbols and dark myths about wandering souls.
The fact that the ZDF series is haunted and the investigators are dealing with mysterious circumstances has nothing to do with the broadcast one day after Halloween – it is part of the concept. Part 13 with the title “Circle of Souls” seems a bit overloaded. The team comes up with decisive ideas for the enigmatic symbols surprisingly suddenly and suddenly. And when it gets caught by the kidnappers of the pregnant woman, the release also succeeds with a rather dubious and difficult to believe trick in the script.
So far, the series around Matthias Koeberlin and Nora Waldstätten in the leading roles has enjoyed great popularity: the first twelve premieres have seen an average of more than seven million viewers. The market share at the premiere at the end of 2014 was just under 20 percent, after which it was even higher. The ZDF shows the parts in loose order, at the end two new ones per year.
“Circle of the soul” is to be understood without knowledge of previous episodes. Even if the private story of Commissioner Zeiler is continued – but that also seems rather pressed into the script. In return, the audience gets a glimpse, literally, behind the scenes of the famous festival on the lake stage. dpa
