The “Tatort: Totes Herz” (January 8) from Dresden raises a few questions. Here are the answers.
Kristin Suckow plays the double role of the twin sisters Nadine Teichmann and Sonja Heuer in the thriller. “Kristin Suckow played it incredibly nuanced. She slowly but surely pulls us into the depths of her character’s tormented soul and not only, but mainly because of this, the gradual transition from crime thriller to psychological thriller succeeds,” enthuses director Andreas Herzog (b .1967).
The leading actress in the episode was born in 1989 in Königs Wusterhausen, Brandenburg. From 2008 to 2012 she studied at the Film and Television University “Konrad Wolf” in Babelsberg. She acted in theaters in Potsdam, Hamburg, Berlin and Bolzano.
Since the first short film “Pocket Money” (2009), Suckow has appeared in numerous other TV films, series and series such as “Allmen und das Secret der Erotik” (2021) or “Theresa Wolff – Home Sweet Home” (2021). In the ARD two-part series “Ottilie von Faber-Castell – Eine brave Frau” (2019), Suckow played the title role in a major television film for the first time. In “Where’s My Sister?” (2022) she was also seen in the eponymous double role – Marie / Amelie.
The gardening helper Juri Novak is also striking. He is played by the Berlin artist Alexander Schuster (b. 1996). His filmography includes films such as the Oscar candidate 2023 “Nothing New in the West” (2022) and “The Taste of Small Things” (2022) as well as the TV series “Wendehammer” (2022) and the feature film “Wiesenwood” (2023).
According to his agency, the 1.81 meter tall actor is also quite athletic. His disciplines: boxing, golf, horseback riding, alpine skiing, yoga and contemporary dance.
The victim was not only murdered, but also suffered from “Broken Heart Syndrome”. Screenwriter Kristin Derfler (born 1965) explains what that means: “A broken heart is actually an illness. And it also has a name: ‘Broken Heart Syndrome’, which in the worst case can lead to death. It will triggered by traumatic experiences. Anyone who suffers from ‘Broken Heart Syndrome’ has a broken heart in the truest sense of the word.”
The symptoms are indistinguishable from those of a heart attack: shortness of breath, a feeling of tightness in the chest, sometimes accompanied by sweating, nausea and vomiting. “Broken Heart Syndrome is a sudden onset of dysfunction of the left ventricle, often triggered by severe stress or pain. About two percent of all patients suspected of having a heart attack actually have Broken Heart Syndrome. syndrome,” Derfler continued. That could also be “life-threatening”, although unlike a heart attack, “no vessel is closed”.
The circulatory disorder is treated by cardiologists and psychotherapists. Those affected recover relatively quickly.
In the thriller, Sonja kills Heuer in order to regain a life that was stolen from her after birth under circumstances that are still unclear to this day. Only the twin sister was allowed to stay with the very young biological mother. The socially relevant background of the film is the subject of “forced adoption in the GDR”, which the screenwriter calls “the stolen children in the GDR”.
“After the end of the GDR, more and more cases of forcibly adopted children became known, whose parents were not in prison and where the child’s welfare was not endangered due to neglect. Sometimes the reason was ‘recalcitrant behavior’, sometimes ‘anti-state agitation’. Anyone who was in opposition, read critics of the regime or read the foreign press risked the state having access to their own children,” says a report by Deutschlandfunk Kultur on the subject.
