Das letzte Problem (2019)

At the snowbound holiday hotel “Edelweiss” (sic!) in Vorarlberg, cut off from the outside world, the chambermaid Lise Nader finds the body of hotel guest Albert Hefenstein, a marine biologist, in a room locked from the inside. He has been stabbed to death with a knife. Shortly before his death, Hefenstein had been looking at the aquarium in the hotel lobby with another guest and musing about goldfish’s keen eyesight. If ghosts existed, perhaps only the goldfish could see them, but he could not. Hotel director Beate Riegler wants to hush the matter up as much as possible, but before long the entire hotel knows about it. Among the guests is Jonas Horak, who says he is an inspector with the criminal police in Vienna. He begins investigating with his travelling assistant, Freitag. They question all the guests and staff, including hotel director Riegler and her brother Franz, a silent partner in the hotel. The two give each other an alibi for the time of the murder. Horak suspects Mr. Marxer of the murder because he was the only hotel guest who had tried to walk down into the valley, but had to turn back because of the snowstorm. He had already served time in prison. Marxer says he spent the night of the crime with Karin Sessler, a widowed former director of the Swiss bank Sessler & Sessler and a regular guest at the hotel. Sessler tells Horak that the hotel is heavily in debt. Then a second hotel guest, Karin Sessler, is murdered, and once again the chambermaid finds the body in a room locked from the inside. When Horak asks about the two victims, Natalie Riegler, the hotel director’s daughter, tells him that she is not interested in the guests or the hotel and does not want to take it over. As Horak and Freitag continue their investigation, policewoman Sophie Landner trudges up from the village on snowshoes. When the village police officer asks Horak for his ID, he says he does not have it with him. Landner says she was notified by phone about the first murder the previous day at 4:50 p.m., but because of the avalanche danger she could only make the climb the following day. According to Horak, however, the first victim was still alive at that time, and the internet and phone connections had already been down for half an hour because of the snowstorm. He therefore suspects it was a prank call. Asked how it was possible for the rooms to have been locked from the inside in both cases, the hotel director explains that it is possible to leave through the balcony door, which locks itself from the outside when closed. So, in each case, the murderer escaped through the balcony door. Horak initially tells policewoman Landner that he works for the Federal Criminal Police Office in Vienna and is spending his holiday here. After she questions him skeptically, he later retracts his statement and says he is in early retirement for health reasons. Landner then asks him about the pills she found in his room. When Landner tries to take his room keys so he can rest and she can make sure he is not disturbed, he overpowers her, gags her, and ties her up with her own handcuffs. He takes her service weapon and gives it to Freitag. After all the hotel guests and staff have gathered in the lobby, Horak announces that he will solve the cases. The murder weapon, a knife, was hidden in the first victim’s room after Horak and Freitag had already searched it. According to Horak, the first victim may have had an account at the bank the second victim had managed, and at which the hotel director is heavily in debt. Horak believes none of this can be a coincidence and that Franz Riegler is covering for his sister. Meanwhile, Landner manages to free herself after Horak and Freitag have left behind the key to the handcuffs, and Freitag has left the gun lying around. It becomes increasingly clear that Freitag exists only in Horak’s imagination. Landner, with the help of the caretaker Schwingenschlögel, arrests Horak and handcuffs him to the bed. When he wakes up, Freitag tells him that Horak has solved the case. According to Freitag, the culprit himself had alerted the police before the first murder. Horak is completely bewildered; he says he knows neither who the culprit was nor why he is handcuffed to the bed. Freitag admits to Horak that he committed both murders, but that Horak had figured it out. The last problem to solve is Freitag’s room number. If Horak can understand why he does not know it, then the last problem will be solved. He hands Horak some pills, which Horak takes. Landner comes in, takes them away from him, and makes Horak vomit up the pills he has already swallowed. When Horak asks about Freitag, Landner (who naturally knows nothing about Freitag) replies that it is only Thursday. When the snowstorm ends, all the hotel guests leave. Horak tells Landner to arrest Freitag because he has confessed to everything. Freitag is standing beside him, although no one can see him. Landner tells Horak that his car is waiting to take him to Vienna and that he has been reinstated. Horak is led to a waiting police car and taken away by the police. Shortly afterwards, a guest reading a newspaper sits in front of the aquarium in the empty hotel lobby. He lowers the newspaper—it is Freitag, who apparently is still there, even though Horak was taken away some time ago. Behind him, Landner enters the lobby and looks around once more. When the policewoman leaves the room, Freitag gets up and follows her. Then the credits begin.