Alt, aber Polt (2018)

Retired gendarme Simon Polt is, on the whole, content with himself and the world. Rather than mingle with the crowd at the Weinviertel cellar-lane festival Herbstzauber, he prefers to sit in the presshouse with his friends and taste his new wine. After the festival, Laura Eichinger, the daughter of a respected winegrower, goes missing and is later found dead. Polt gives a statement to the police officer in charge, Walter Grabherr, because he had seen Laura shortly before her death with a group of teenagers, including Benni and Gonzo. Laura’s father later tells Polt that she drowned while heavily intoxicated and under the influence of drugs; according to Grabherr, no signs of outside involvement were found. Laura’s father therefore asks Polt to make inquiries, since the police do not intend to pursue the case further. In the course of this, Polt encounters the somewhat eccentric actress Mira Martell, who confronts him with high culture by reciting Japanese poems and Shakespeare. She feels guilty because, on the evening of her death, she advised Laura to leave the beaten track and make a fresh start. He also encounters Grete Hahn, once the beauty of the village and now an alcoholic, and the cynical, self-destructive criminal investigator Ernst Zlabinger, who is fond of alcohol, is a psychological wreck, and is on the verge of early retirement. Benni tells Polt that Gonzo sexually harassed Laura shortly before her death, after which Gonzo and Benni got into a fight. According to Grabherr, who also asks Polt for help, and to Gonzo’s statement, however, Laura seems to have headed home soon afterward. Benni eventually admits that the group had made a cruel movie with Laura, during which they also repeatedly held her head underwater. According to Gonzo, however, she was still alive afterward.