This time, the “police call 110” raises a few questions: How long has the Way of St. James led through Brandenburg? Who is Frank Leo Schroeder? What is the issue of insolvency? And of course: How is Vincent Ross doing in his first solo? Here are the answers.
The Way of St. James in Brandenburg?
The destination of the path is always the same: the tomb of Saint James the Apostle in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. In the meantime, however, the Way of St. James – the main part of which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993 – meanders through all of Europe. In Germany, the first routes were identified in 1992 and continued to be expanded until the end of the 1990s. The Munich Way of St. James was inaugurated in 2003, followed by Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse and many more. The Brandenburg Way of St. James from Berlin to Tangermünde was already a pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.
This was also a surprising detail for screenwriter Mike Bäuml in the run-up to the production of the “Polizeiruf” episode “Der Gott des Bankrotts”: “The reference to the Way of St. James in Brandenburg came from our editor Daria Moheb Zandi and immediately aroused my interest. First Then I discovered how ramified this pilgrimage route is and how a network of nerves stretches to the furthest corners of Europe.”
Who is Frank Leo Schroeder?
The question is of course meant more rhetorically. The filmography of the actor, who was born in Lingen in 1961, is so full that it is almost impossible not to have “met” him over the past three decades. In Darmstadt and Mainz he could be seen in Fassbender plays as well as in musicals until the mid-90s. Later he also worked as a director. In 2017 he staged “Rio Reiser – König von Deutschland” at the Hans-Otto-Theater in Potsdam.
Schröder also proved to be a great all-rounder on television from the mid-90s onwards. He was seen in “Tatort”, in “Alarm for Cobra 11” and numerous other roles, including in the sitcom “Anke”, “Der Heiland auf dem Eiland” and “Notruf Hafen Kante”. And just the night before in “Polizeiruf 110”, where his part, the idiosyncratic Karl Rogov, had a number of onerous mortgages written into the screenplay. However, Schröder breathed life into this figure in a pleasantly calm way – and thus made the question of a reunion inevitable.
And what about the bankruptcies?
Insolvency administrator and debt counselor united in an amorous way, and also in business with the same clients, is that even realistic? Expert Jan Heckmann, insolvency administrator and lawyer for insolvency law and debt counseling, has a clear answer: “Debt counselors have the legal mandate to create the legal requirements for consumer insolvency. Already during the process, this means that debt counseling is active first and then the insolvency administrator. The two have no reason to meet. In reality, they correspond about the court and not in a conversation as a threesome.”
Will Ross/Kaczmarczyk be able to cope on their own in the future?
There’s probably no reason not to accept that. At first it may have to stutter a bit. André Kaczmarczyk as Commissioner Vincent Ross with the kajal around his eyes and the idiosyncratic clothes, that was and is unusual. But after just a few uses, you can recognize your own groove. The merit of a screenplay like the current one by Mike Bäuml, who, with Ross’ counterpart Karl Rogov, a sullen loner with a preference for doner kebabs, calmly circumnavigates the cliché pitfalls. Ross and Rogov with nuts and vodka, plus the already deeply relaxed inspector Wiktor Krol (Klaudiusz Kaufmann) – it could actually go on like this.
And how is it going now?
Next Sunday, February 12, with the Black Forest investigators Franziska Tobler (Eva Löbau) and Friedemann Berg (Hans-Jochen Wagner) in “Tatort: ??Below in the Valley”, a cold case from the past decade puzzles them. The next “police call 110” will follow on February 19th, Katrin König (Anneke Kim Sarnau) and Melly Böwe (Lina Beckmann) are in Rostock looking for “Daniel A.”.
