In the middle of the beautiful Thuringian Forest, below the Wartburg in Eisenach, there is a refrigerator. And not only that: There is also a corpse inside – with the left eye missing and hands folded as if praying. The dead man is a judge at the Erfurt Higher Regional Court who is described as a merciless person.
The criminal psychologist Annett Schuster (Kristin Suckow) and the case analyst Jan Kawig (Bernhard Conrad) therefore suspect revenge as the motive for the murder. The MDR thriller “Death on the Rennsteig – an eye for an eye” will be shown on Thursday (March 9th) at 8:15 p.m. on the first channel.
The two investigators know each other from before, because Schuster did her training here before she disappeared to Boston and has now returned. The new operative case analysis (OFA) team is headed by the more maternal Marion Dörner (Anne-Kathrin Gummich). Two more bodies are soon discovered – the investigators are beginning to realize that they are dealing with a serial killer who knows battles.
Director Maris Pfeiffer (60, “Getrieben”, “Mord am Höllengrund”) also tells about religious stories and belief in a God. The main focus is on finding the perpetrator (book: Jens Köster), in which religious motives and revenge play a major role. The perpetrator seems to be intelligent and uses his own (image) language, which now has to be deciphered. More and more (as in some other TV thrillers) the past of an investigator comes into focus – it’s not just about the biblical saying “an eye for an eye”, but also about “a tooth for a tooth”.
Bernhard Conrad (41, “Kahlschlag”, “Der Überfall”) plays a trained carpenter with feelings and a quiet sense of humor who eats his sandwiches in church and, as a case analyst, tries to throw a piece of the puzzle into the air in hope that “a finished picture” may then emerge on the ground.
That, in turn, is not the thing of his rational colleague: Kristin Suckow (34, “The only thing that helps is prayer!”) prefers to stick to clear facts. And she is amazed to learn that the (sometimes singing) coroner flirts with her very nicely.
All in all, this is a pleasantly unexcited crime thriller that can come up with abandoned locations (church, swimming pool, theater) and main characters who communicate closely with each other.
The unconventional and purely East German team has a lot to solve in this tricky case, in which the perpetrator is obvious to the viewer early on. There is enough dry humor and the pictures of the beautiful Erfurt and Thuringian Forest are also pretty good.
