A bodyguard has to deal with trauma while simultaneously facing stress from the past. But the ARD deviates from classic crime formats on Saturday evening.
Berlin – They named the first piglet Berti – after Berti Vogts. This was followed by Andy, Icke, Jürgen and a whole swing from the 1998 national soccer team.
Ben and Timmi called the litter “The Glorious Twelve”. Now – years later – Ben tries to use these memories to get his friend out of the vegetative state.
The bodyguard had actually come to the Baltic Sea to deal with the trauma of an operation that had gone wrong: instead of rescuing a kidnapped girl, he brought it to the barrels of the criminals. The child dies, he survives thanks to a protective vest.
But when he visits his parents for the first time in years, the past catches up with Ben: they told the boy that Timmi died in an accident. For that reason alone, Ben had avoided contact with home. But now he learns of Timmi’s fate, who has been in the hospital since childhood. On hoses and machines, rolls your eyes. As luck would have it, Ben’s wife Marion is a doctor who specializes in this clinical picture. They want to try to communicate with Timmi using modern technology.
The first shows “The Visitation” on Saturday evening at prime time at 8:15 pm. What ARD announces as a thriller is much more than that. Director Stephan Rick stages the story over long distances in the dark: at night, in the basement, in the hospital corridor, where the lights go out one after the other. For the finale, a thunderstorm thunders and flashes over the protagonist.
But towards the end the film has one or two very surprising twists and turns and also mysterious elements, as is rather unusual for a Saturday evening film in the first. Some of the viewers are likely to remain perplexed, others celebrate the joy of experimentation.
Screenwriter Thorsten Wettcke wanted to “turn the screw that is narrative on German television (…) significantly further”, as he says according to the press release. He wrote the story tightly. But this sometimes harbors contradictions: In a dispute, Marion accuses Ben of keeping her largely out of his life. “You almost have to be shot first so I can get to know your parents.” If you suspect a relationship conflict here, the two are most of the time a couple who are seriously in love, including a spontaneous marriage proposal.
Kostja Ullmann and Kristin Suckow in the leading roles play strong. And other actors such as Martin Feifel and Deborah Kaufmann as Ben’s parents also come into their own in the brevity of the appearances.
Rick had it shot in the Cinemascope widescreen format and then cut off the picture on the left and right. “The effect that arises is that everything in the center of the picture is sharp, and becomes increasingly soft and blurred towards the edges,” explains the director. “As a result, the viewer’s gaze is even more focused, while at the same time the images have something timeless in their aesthetics.”
In addition, the film jumps between here and now and flashbacks from Ben’s childhood. For a long time one can also wonder what the whole thing has to do with a thriller when Marion gives a detailed lecture on vegetative state and traces a brain in the sand on the shore of the Baltic Sea. Every now and then the dead girl appears to appear. But it is only towards the end that it becomes rapidly more complex. The resolution shouldn’t be missed. Maybe some think about it even longer. dpa
