For the 10th anniversary of the “Tatort” commissioner Thorsten Falke (Wotan Wilke Möhring, 55), the makers chose a highly explosive and current topic. Screenwriter Julia Drache shows the sometimes depressing existence of people in Germany without papers: “The worst thing is this hopelessness that people find themselves in.” That’s why, according to Drache, the drama in “Verborgen” is in the foreground. The main focus of the story is the fate of Jon Makoni. A well-integrated man who, eleven years after fleeing from Zimbabwe to Germany, has still not received official status. The role is embodied by actor Alois Moyo (56), who brought his own experiences to the Sunday evening thriller.
“My personal experiences have flowed into the film,” said Moyo in advance. He also comes from Zimbabwe and was politically persecuted there. In 2001 he got his first contacts to Germany through an art project. From there, however, he first traveled on to England and applied for asylum there, which was rejected. He was then deported to Germany at the age of 35: “I couldn’t work legally as an artist and would have liked to go to theater or film school.” At that time, however, refugees were not allowed to work or study: “You go crazy, really. It was a difficult time.”
He commuted between Zimbabwe and Germany for ten years and was later able to work in this country with an artist visa. In 2007 he produced his first play in Germany with “Afrika Montage”: “Since then I have also acted in several TV productions.” Moyo has had a German passport for four years. He still has a lot in common with his role, not just his origins and contacts in Great Britain. Jon has the identical attitude: “There is worse, better than nothing! That’s what I thought at the time too.”
Incidentally, Moyo was very moved by the shooting of “Verborgen”. When playing, he even had tears in his eyes: “This film means a lot to me, because I feel like Jon.” The “crime scene” also tells his story and he thinks it’s good that millions of viewers can now get an idea of how difficult it is for refugees to live in Germany without papers.
Incidentally, his first “Tatort” role was not his engagement in “Verborgen”. In 2015, Moyo was seen alongside Wotan Wilke Möhring. At that time he played the role of the asylum seeker Bashir in the crime film “Burned”. However, Moyo made what is by far his best-known film long before he fled Africa to Europe: In 1992 he was in the drama “In the Glory of the Sun” alongside Hollywood stars such as Morgan Freeman (85) and Daniel Craig (55) seen in a smaller role.
