Das Lied des toten Mädchens (2021)

In the autumn of 1995, a passerby finds the body of high-school graduate Sonja Risse on Wilzenberg in the Sauerland. The girl has been murdered and is lying on a red bench by the forest lake. The killer left a music box at the crime scene, with a little ballerina spinning as it plays the lullaby “Hush, Little Baby.” Unfortunately, the circumstances of the crime could not be cleared up at the time. The music box yielded no clues either, apart from the fact that Sonja had owned one as a child and often played with it. Twenty-five years later, journalist Stefanie “Mütze” Schneider follows a tip from an informant that leads her to a car park in Cologne. There she finds the naked body of a man, Andre Hoffmann, in a van, with the familiar lullaby playing from a music box beside him. The victim is a small-time pimp who was active in the Sauerland 25 years earlier. At first, this is merely strange to Stefanie, since she knows nothing about the old murder in the Sauerland. It is only her colleague Jan Römer who recognizes the tune and sees the connection. He had reported on the sensational murder in the Sauerland as a junior journalist at the time, but an offer to cover the football World Cup had made him forget about the case. The two journalists head to Wilzenbach, where the victim had lived, to find out more about the crime. They soon come across contradictions and unanswered questions that the police apparently ignored at the time. Sonja Risse’s mother tells Römer and Schneider that after graduating, Sonja took a job as a waitress and also worked as a chambermaid for an industrialist from Cologne at Wilzenberg—a place that, according to legend, should be avoided at certain times. Asked what might have happened to her daughter back then, Maria Risse replies, “She challenged him—the Devil.” To get a fuller picture of the girl and her circumstances, Römer and Schneider question other people who knew Sonja, including her former teacher, Sebastian Waldheim, who makes no secret of how highly he thought of her. They learn that Sonja’s job at the inn had involved more than simply waiting tables: along with two friends, she had also worked as an escort for special guests. Sonja had recently had a boyfriend, however, who could not have approved of this work. Stefanie therefore remarks drily, “You kill what you love.” The journalists’ inquiries do not go unnoticed for long. Before long, constitutional protection officer Edmund Münch turns up in the area. He also seems personally involved in the case and has ordered a search for Thomas Sonnefeld, who is said to have recently returned to Germany from a witness protection program. Meanwhile, Sonja’s friends from back then, Rebecca and Anne, receive mysterious messages from an unknown sender: a little music box with a ballerina. Someone also breaks into Römer’s apartment in Cologne while he is away. Together, Schneider and Römer discover that Sonja, Rebecca, and Anne had probably worked as part of their special line of work in a “safe house”—a hunting lodge on Wilzenberg where people at risk were normally supposed to be sheltered. Various clues suggest that Sonja intended to leave the country with an informant for the constitutional protection service who had been temporarily hidden there, because she had fallen in love with him. Römer and Schneider try to find the lodge to substantiate their theory. Their search is made easier when, shortly before reaching their destination, they hear the music-box tune. Just before they reach the lodge, someone suddenly addresses them from behind and congratulates them on finding their way to him. It is Thomas Sonnefeld, who forces them at gunpoint to enter the lodge. Inside, they find Edmund Münch tied up. Sonnefeld claims that Münch murdered Sonja, but Römer cannot make sense of this. After Münch manages to free himself and flee, he plunges into a ravine. Although Sonnefeld seems to have got what he wanted, Römer doubts that the case has been solved. They seem to have overlooked something, so they visit Sonja’s teacher once more. He explains that he had arranged everything for Sonja back then and even secured her a place at university. In his view, she could have become anything, but instead she wanted to give it all up to go abroad with “those terrorists.” Römer looks intently at Waldheim and asks him, “Have you ever been in love?” Waldheim lowers his eyes guiltily. The police arrest Waldheim as someone strongly suspected of the crime, and the two journalists head home to write their story.