Breisgau - Bullenstall (2021)

Chief Inspector Tanja Wilken, who comes from Rostock, begins her assignment with the homicide squad in Freiburg im Breisgau. There she encounters a whole family of police officers, including her investigative partner Dennis Danzeisen; his aunt, precinct chief Dorothea Danzeisen; forensic pathologist Dominik Danzeisen; police officer David Danzeisen; police officer Diana Gruber, née Danzeisen; and police sketch artist Doreen Danzeisen. Compliance officer Heinz Löwe warns Wilken about the precinct’s unconventional structures. In their first case together, Tanja Wilken and Dennis Danzeisen investigate the death of journalist Silke Bär. She had been researching a story about suspicious goings-on at Freiburg-South police precinct, the precinct run by the Danzeisen family. Wilken wonders whether the journalist might have come across incriminating material about the Danzeisens. Arthur Bär, the victim’s father, gives Tanja Wilken documents that lead her to Olaf Pieper (“Opi”), a convicted criminal and a friend of Dennis Danzeisen. Pieper regularly made courier runs for a dental company. Dental technician Marcel Häberli and his lover and employee Marie Faber also come under investigation. The two had unsuccessfully tried to swindle a rapper. Using Silke’s navigation device and its stored GPS data, the investigators are led to an abandoned warehouse in Alsace. On the day Wilken plans to search Pieper’s home, the police find Opi dead in his garden, drowned in the garden pond. There are signs of a struggle inside the house. The autopsy establishes that Silke Bär died from a head injury; an Opi SIM card was found at the crime scene. Opi had two phones and prepaid SIM cards. Some angry calls he received came from Marcel Häberli. Wilken and Danzeisen follow Marcel Häberli and the rapper he swindled, MC D’ECSTA SY, to Marcel’s father Urs in Switzerland. The rapper demands €40,000 plus 10% interest from Urs. After MC D’ECSTA SY threatens him with a gun, Dennis temporarily arrests him. Marcel Häberli was supposed to make diamond-studded dental jewelry—so-called “grills”—worth €40,000 for MC D’ECSTA SY. Marcel wanted to keep the originals and had tried to pass off imitations instead. After the rapper gets the money from Urs, Wilken and Dennis Danzeisen return to Germany with Marcel Häberli. There, Häberli says the diamonds were stolen from him on the way to the market. Dennis Danzeisen, however, believes Häberli had hired Pieper to sell the stones. When Pieper failed to get in touch with Häberli, Häberli began stalking Opi by phone. Häberli nevertheless claims he spent the whole night with his fiancée. At the pawnshop, the investigators learn from Leo Raible that he offered Opi €19,000 for the diamonds two days earlier. Raible has kept the diamonds. Arthur Bär received the €19,000 in an envelope. Dennis suspects that Opi wanted to make amends for part of his responsibility for Silke Bär’s death. Wilken suspects Marcel Häberli may have killed Opi because he wanted his diamonds back. She also has another theory: Silke Bär may have suffered a fatal fall in Alsace while fleeing from Opi. Someone then broke into her office and made all the storage media disappear. This still-unidentified person could also have killed Opi because he felt guilty and had therefore become a liability. Dennis suspects that it may have been Tobias Stein, deputy manager at Urs Häberli’s dental company. Stein was the last person to have contact with Opi. While surveilling the warehouse in Alsace, the investigators encounter Tobias Stein, who is illegally producing dental prostheses there with Chinese workers for one-fifth of the usual cost. Silke Bär had discovered what he was doing, but according to Stein, her death was an accident. He then cleared out her office to cover his tracks. He says, however, that he had nothing to do with Olaf Pieper’s death. In photographs of Opi’s house, Wilken spots an antihistamine for pollen allergies. It was not taken by Opi’s pregnant girlfriend, Trixi, but by Marie Faber, Marcel Häberli’s girlfriend. Faber hit Opi on the head with a trophy. He then fled into the garden and, while drunk, drowned in the garden pond. Marie Faber is eventually arrested by the police. **Subplot** Tanja Wilken’s distrust of her new partner, Dennis Danzeisen, and his family runs as a recurring theme throughout the film, fueled by journalist Silke Bär’s investigations and Heinz Löwe’s suspicions. By the end of the film, however, the suspicions have diminished, and Ms. Wilken begins to trust Dennis Danzeisen. This is contrasted with an event of which Ms. Wilken knows nothing. In one scene, Doreen Danzeisen shows Dorothea Danzeisen a painting she has made at the police precinct, remarking that she was born 400 years too late. The implication is that the painting may be a forgery she made of a work by an Old Master. The film ends with a scene in which Diana Gruber and David Danzeisen meet an unknown man on a deserted road, hand him the painting, and receive a suitcase full of money in exchange. The scene is surprising because Diana Gruber and David Danzeisen had previously been portrayed as especially friendly and helpful young police officers, and Dorothea Danzeisen as an approachable, cheerful chief of the precinct’s riot police—in other words, as people one would not expect to engage in cold-blooded criminal behavior. The film’s ending raises a question pointing toward future episodes: is the family clan involved in criminal activities, or is this a covert police operation?