They are ambassadors for carp, white sausage or beer: the Queen’s Day of the Bavarian product queens brings together numerous young women who volunteer to promote regional products. But the meeting is overshadowed by an assassination attempt: Josef Gehrling (Wolfgang Fierek), the president of the Bavaria Bund, was shot in the head with a bolt gun in his hotel room. He is fighting for his life in the intensive care unit. When Commissioners Franz Leitmayr (Udo Wachtveitl) and Ivo Batic (Miroslav Nemec) arrive on site, they first have to deal with Sylvia (Veronica Ferres), the organizer of Queen’s Day. She’s worried that the attempted murder could overshadow her festival weekend. When it comes out that Gehrling has exploited his position and sexually harassed several queens, each of the young women suddenly has a motive. Batic and Leitmayr receive support from Annelie (Daria Vivien Wolf) – who is not only Nördlingen’s onion queen, but also a police student.
“Tatort” features a prominent cast with Veronica Ferres and Wolfgang Fierek. Both play remarkably, even if their characters are by no means likeable. Ferres and Fierek give something like the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell of agriculture. He embodies a disgusting and influential president who sexually harasses and abuses the young product queens. She is his right hand who tolerates or even encourages the actions and says things like: “The girls know what they’re getting into, that it’s just part of it. Anyone who puts their breasts up that high has an intention behind it.” The film shows MeToo cases in the agricultural industry: young women who act as ambassadors and praise products and are themselves treated like goods. At least a performance by the Bavarian cult band LaBrassBanda ensures a somewhat positive atmosphere.
The film (screenplay: Robert Löhr, director: Rudi Gaul) fluctuates between comedy and tragedy. Telling a serious topic like sexual abuse in a funny way seems inappropriate in many places. The world of product queens is “a game with girls’ dreams and men’s urges,” says screenwriter Robert Löhr. “Where power structures and often alcohol are involved, sexual harassment is not far away.” A little more seriousness would have been appropriate. The allusion to the fairy tale Cinderella is also unnecessary and silly: one of the suspicious queens loses her shoe, which all the women have to try on at the end.
For Chief Inspector Franz Leitmayr (Udo Wachtveitl), the world of product queens is completely new territory. His colleague Ivo Batic (Miroslav Nemec), on the other hand, remembers a “grenade-like encounter with the Middle Franconian potato queen”. And her young colleague Kalli Hammermann (Ferdinand Hofer) uses the weekend in the country not only to work, but also to flirt. Leitmayr and Batic also make a few mistakes as old white men. The latter, for example, makes an appearance in the hotel room in a white bathrobe.
Due to the cast and the important topic, this is a case from Munich that you should have seen.
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