Switzerland crime scene "Schattenkinder": Dark clouds over Lake Zurich

The Swiss crime scene “Schattenkinder” gets stuck in clichés about art and pain. Convincing: the somewhat cheerless investigators.

Frankfurt – A slightly exaggerated crime scene from Zurich, a crime city that in its own way – always very interesting for a Frankfurt audience – defends and varies a reputation for prosperity, drugs and left-wing milieu. The money there is often older than in Frankfurt crime novels, and behind the bourgeois saturated there is a lot of need for therapy. “Züri brännt” was about how the youth unrest of the 80s had an impact on the present, and “Schokiläbbe” was about evil, rich women confectionery manufacturers. And the third case for the Ott/Grandjean team is also quite fundamental.

Tatort from Zurich in the first: what the “shadow children” do

While watching the art project in front of the TV, with which a smart and extremely uninteresting Zurich gallery owner wants to make a lot of money at the expense of desperate people, one might rather follow the art project with a rolling eye, surprisingly, inspector Ott feels drawn to it. “We have to connect with the pain” are phrases from the formula kit that come out of the artist Kyomi’s lips without batting an eyelid.

Or: “Only wounds that can be shown can heal.” Sarah Hostettler is the one who really looks and looks like a gallery owner who wants to earn money must have always imagined an artist. The art itself is complicated and simple at the same time. Complicated to make, simple in substance. The most visible part is that some hapless young people, the eponymous “Shadow Children”, get intricately and painfully tattooed by Kyomi. Also in tricky places and with tricky places, for example, the eyeballs are meant.

Zurich crime scene in the first: consistently disgusted

If Ott weren’t so fascinated, they would have been dismissed long ago (Grandjean, on the other hand: consistently disgusted). The following very short dialogue gets to the heart of the situation and also that it doesn’t get any more complex than that: “If I no longer recognize myself in the mirror, does that free me from myself?” says Ott. “If you can no longer recognize yourself in the mirror, you need glasses,” says Grandjean.

Those who are unhappy at work themselves are not encouraged by the cool relationship that the two investigators have now largely maintained in the third episode. Even if things are going well here. Because it is uncomfortable for Ott that in the course of a supervisory procedure (a consequence of “Schokiläbbe”) Grandjean should also judge her and her reliability as a partner. Carol Schuler as Tessa Ott and Anna Pieri Zuercher as Isabelle Grandjean are more convincing as characters than the overall situation. And the screenwriters Stefanie Veith and Nina Vukovic as well as the director Christine Repond can relate to the not always easy interaction between women.

“Schattenkinder”: And the singer Carol Schuler sings a song in the Zurich crime scene

That the singer Schuler also comes to sing this time: due to the favorable opportunity and the fact that somehow there must have been time. Because neither with the art project, which (here indignation flares up again and again) turns people into art objects (or seems to do so), nor with the psychological background does “Schattenkinder” plan a significant deepening: the art, which also amounts to videos that appear designer-like , is a cliche of art.

The devastating topic of abuse, which is called up with a view to the psychological side, ultimately serves only as a vehicle to justify the delusional part. But in this respect it only plays a Scandinavian crime thriller in Switzerland, including a corpse that is presented as elaborately and eerily as possible. (Judith von Sternburg)