In the new Dortmund crime thriller “Tatort: ??Love is pain” (April 23, 8:15 p.m., the first), the team of investigators around the commissioners Peter Faber (Jörg Hartmann, 53) and Jan Pawlak (Rick Okon, 34) and the provisional director Rosa Herzog (Stefanie Reinsperger, 35) with a brutal stabber.
When Peter Faber joins Jan Pawlak and Rosa Herzog in the early morning, the forensics team is almost done with their work. Tram driver Hamza Arkadas (Mehmet Daloglu, b. 1996) was stabbed while working the night shift. There are no witnesses, but the images from the surveillance camera show how Arkadas was first provoked and then attacked by a young passenger.
The perpetrator pointed his face aggressively at the camera before fleeing, but the recordings are of little help at first. He does not seem to be known to the police, and public prosecutor Matuschek (Moritz Führmann, 44) does not want to go public with the pictures yet.
Rosa Herzog, who took over the acting management of the homicide squad in Faber’s absence, gets support from police officer Beate Gräske (Sar Adina Scheer, born 1994). She is a “Super Recognizer” with the special ability to recognize faces. With the help of surveillance cameras, she sets out to track down the perpetrator…
Yes. Although the great grief of the individual characters is understandable, the story seems a bit constructed. Nevertheless, the thriller is very exciting – especially some scenes in the nocturnal streets of Dortmund. And this despite the fact that you know from the start who the perpetrator is. The two screenwriters Hanno Hackfort and Bob Konrad, who were responsible for the surprise hit “4 Blocks” (2017-2019), among other things, explained to the broadcaster: “‘Love is pain’ is a revenge story. It plays one in the psychology of our avenger It’s crucial that he wants to be seen. He wants to lure the investigators onto the track and thus direct their focus in a very specific direction.”
In addition to many private problems of the main investigators, there is also good news: Peter Faber is back in the team and his dry sayings like “Ne butter bowl?” instead of Buddha-Bowl, with which he likes to make fun of trends, of course not enough. On the other hand, he can accept surprisingly well that the provisional management is initially in the hands of Rosa Herzog, because after the death of Martina Böhnisch (Anna Schudt, 49) he has to find his way back.
Speaking of Böhnisch, actor Moritz Führmann (44), who plays the prosecutor Matuschek and makes no secret of his aversion to Commissioner Faber, has been married to Anna Schudt in real life since 2010. The award-winning theater star first appeared in his role in the Dortmund-Munich crossover double “Tatort: ??In der Familie” (2020).
