In the "Tatort: The Worlds Wages", a desperate ex-employee wants reparation from the unscrupulous CEO. Is the thriller worth it?
In "Tatort: Der Welten Lohn" (1.11., 8:15 pm, the first) the two Stuttgart "Tatort" commissioners Thorsten Lannert (Richy Müller, 65) and Sebastian Bootz (Felix Klare, 42) get into the fight between an authoritarian CEO and his former employee. Is it worth switching on?
This is what "Tatort: The Worlds Wages" is all about
When the HR manager of a Stuttgart company is found dead in the forest, the inspectors Thorsten Lannert and Sebastian Bootz begin their investigations in the company. They hear no special incidents – CEO Joachim Bässler (Stephan Schad) does not mention his conflict with former employee Oliver Manlik (Barnaby Metschurat). For more than three years he was imprisoned as a pawn by the company for corruption in the USA. Now he's back in the country and wants his life back.
The private sphere, however, is in ruins, his wife Caroline (Isabelle Barth) has lost all trust in him and a new partner and Manlik's son Justus (Elias Sánchez-Reinhard) no longer wants to have anything to do with him. At least at the company, Oliver Manlik wants to achieve something: Reinstallation and compensation for his imprisonment are the least for him. Bässler's persistent rejection continues to incite his feelings of revenge.
When a bomb attack is carried out on the CEO's car, he is convinced that Manlik is the culprit. Now it suits him that the commissioners consider Manlik to be the main suspect in the HR manager's case. However, Lannert and Bootz find no evidence. The situation between the desperate Manlik and the unscrupulous Bässler escalates …
Is it worth switching on?
Yes. The crime thriller is exciting and the story fits in with Stuttgart. Some details are also reminiscent of a real case. The actors Barnaby Metschurat and Stephan Schad are very appropriately cast as central opponents and embody "the spiral of escalation", as director Gerd Schneider calls it, credibly.
The starting point of the case is the "very special American anti-corruption law FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act)", explains screenwriter Boris Dennulat. This could mean that foreign companies in the USA have to face a process for corruption, even though they have not bribed in the USA. "With the consequence that someone from a company in the USA has to go to jail, as a scapegoat, so to speak," the author continues.
The thriller shows the personal consequences for this pawn sacrifice as well as a merciless value system that is geared towards the business success of a company. Actually criminal actions are justified with the argument of the preservation of jobs. "I want redress," says former employee Oliver Manlik, who did not expect this value system to be directed against him, at one point in the film. "No court in the world will return what has been taken from you," is the sad answer.