Blumen für Polt (2001)

Two tragic accidents occur in Brunndorf. The accidental death of petty crook Rudi Riebl comes as no surprise, since he has made a habit of lying in wait for drunk drivers and throwing himself in front of their cars on his moped—naturally, with the aim of claiming compensation for his injuries. The second accident befalls Willi, who is mentally disabled. He tumbles down a steep slope at the loess escarpment below the Riede and can only be recovered dead. Gendarme Simon Polt, who is investigating the case, had something like a friendship with this gentle, good-natured man. Polt doubts that Willi, who knew how dangerous the slope was and had assured him that he would always be especially careful there, had been careless and fallen victim to an accident. Only a short time earlier, Willi had brought him wildflowers he had picked himself. Polt makes inquiries, and his doubts about whether the accidents were genuine grow stronger still. His investigation leads him to the Frieb brothers, who are known as hooligans and enjoy drinking heavily. A gang of youths also comes under suspicion. Polt struggles with the question of whether a murder really took place here. The youths bring him into conflict with Karin Walter, the teacher he admires, who considers his suspicions groundless and believes the youths already have enough to contend with in their troubled families. The investigation leads to a shocking conclusion. Willi’s death begins with a chain of unfortunate circumstances. A cave in the loess section, a secret meeting place for the village children, was also a place Willi often visited. At the time of the accident, a vineyard owner is nearby and frightens Willi so badly that he stumbles forward and straight over the deliberately outstretched legs of one of the children, who repeatedly make fun of him. He cannot regain his balance and tumbles down the loess escarpment—though he survives the fall. Willi’s father, who had rejected him immediately after his birth, finds him and kills the injured man. Like most of the villagers, who saw Willi as a soulless creature, an idiot unworthy of life who disrupted their pseudo-idyllic image, his own father considered him a dim-witted cretin whose grin he found unbearable. Willi found support only from Antonia Raab, who took him in, and from Simon Polt, who treated him with his own characteristic kindness.