It’s every parent’s nightmare: their child disappears without a trace. That’s exactly what the new Magdeburg “Polizeiruf 110: Ronny” (March 19, 8:15 p.m., the first) is all about. A ten-year-old boy who has to live in a children’s home, a desperate mother and a violent friend – one emotional topic follows the next. In this case, not only the spectators, but also chief inspector Doreen Brasch (Claudia Michelsen, 54) reaches her limits.
Ten-year-old Ronny Hartwig (Johann Barnstorf, born 2009) lives in the children’s home and celebrates his birthday there. He also visits his mother Sabine (Ceci Chuh, born 1991) on this day. But on the way back, the little boy disappears without a trace. The search by chief inspector Doreen Brasch and her colleagues begins. Both Ronny’s mother and her new friend René (Oskar Bökelmann, born 1997) are under suspicion. Sabine has been trying to regain custody for a long time, but the youth welfare office doesn’t think she’s stable enough. René, on the other hand, sees the little boy as a troublemaker who is sabotaging life together with Sabine and his daughter Josefine (Lotta Herzog). Also on his birthday there is a fight between René and Ronny. The ten-year-old runs away with a bleeding nose.
He wanted to meet his favorite educator Matthias Pecht (Thomas Schubert, 29) to go fishing. However, Pecht lies during his first questioning and is thus also counted among the suspects. What happened to Ronny? Is he alive? For Brasch and her colleagues, the search becomes a painful race against time. Because the freezing temperatures reduce every minute the chance of finding the child alive.
Absolutely. The new case from Magdeburg is emotionally charged. After all, it’s about a ten-year-old boy who is missing. Until the end, the question of whether Ronny is alive or not torments you. The children’s home component is also added. You immediately sympathize with the little boy who wants to go back to his mother. A look into the sad children’s eyes – the first tear could already fall. If that wasn’t bad enough, his mother’s boyfriend would make life difficult for him.
In this film, the focus is primarily on women, or mothers, and their feelings. “‘Ronny’ is a film about the love we have for our children. The fear that something will happen to them, that we will lose them, that they will become alienated, slip away from us or even disappear,” explains director Barbara Ott (40). The focus is on the disappearance of the child, but the effects that this has on everyone involved are also shown. An act marks not only the victim, but also the people close to them – sometimes forever.
Chief Inspector Doreen Brasch, who has a grown-up son herself, is also struggling with her feelings – but he has broken off contact. She gives everything from second one, you can tell how close she is to the case. She loses her composure more than once, niceties and rules don’t seem to matter here. Brasch rigorously pursues only one goal: to find the child. The many suspects don’t make things easier – but more exciting and also sadder. After all, how can it be that there are so many people in a child’s environment who want something bad for him?
Brasch is also very emotionally involved for a reason, she is doubly confronted with her past. “A memory of another case comes up, which is painful because they acted incorrectly at the time and were therefore unable to save the child,” explains actress Claudia Michelsen. In addition, a detail from her childhood is addressed. On the other hand, detective Uwe Lemp (Felix Vörtler, 61) and detective superintendent Günther Márquez (Pablo Grant, 26) only play minor roles in this case. The young supporting actors are convincing across the board. “Regardless of age, I find her work remarkable and I really wanted her to be in the film,” agrees Ott.
What might bother many: Some questions remain unanswered. Characters pose puzzles that are never solved. At the end of the day, a scene is hard to endure – even for Brasch. This case definitely gets under your skin and will certainly resonate with one or the other.
