What is suspicion and what is prejudice?

Inspector Lindholm is involved in the murder of a young woman. And fights against prejudice. Especially your own.

Can you afford prejudice when it comes to murder? Charlotte Lindholm (Maria Furtwängler) and Anaïs Schmitz (Florence Kasumba) are at a loss.

NDR / Christine Schroeder

Sometimes things end up in ways we never imagined. But that’s not always because of things. But to us. Because we don’t see things as they are, but as we want to see them. Or how we think we need to see them. Charlotte Lindholm (Maria Furtwängler) and Anaïs Schmitz (Florence Kasumba) are no exception, although they are police officers. Especially when it comes to racism. About refugees, skin color and the clichés associated with it.

The body of a young woman is found near the Kiessee, and the case seems almost clear to the police. The “Viking” has been on the road in Göttingen for weeks. A sex offender who ambushed and raped women. The fact that a passer-by at the crime scene saw a young man fleeing on a bicycle does not fit into the picture because the witness asserts that the man was dark-skinned. “Definitely not from Europe,” he says, but what does that mean?

Where the prejudices lurk

Just normal racism. Hardly trustworthy, the statement. You can really see the disgust on Schmitz’s and Lindholm’s faces when the witness starts babbling about the “dark aura” that the young man had. Of course, he can’t say what that “dark radiance” is. He thinks he can feel it. And maybe he saw more than a man with a bicycle and a white T-shirt.

A trace, nothing more. And certainly not the most important, think Lindholm and Schmitz. So on, but where? The victim was a refugee helper and gave German courses for migrants. It is part of police routine to examine the circumstances surrounding a crime, but this is where things get tricky. When it comes to refugees, prejudice lurks around every corner. And when people like Herr and Frau Kaul, who have made helping their life’s work, tell you that refugees deserve protection and nothing else, even Inspector Schmitz gets a bit uneasy.

Issa (Castro Dokyi Affum) is acting suspiciously.  Or is it fear that drives him?

Issa (Castro Dokyi Affum) is acting suspiciously. Or is it fear that drives him?

NDR/Christine Schroeder

Charlotte Lindholm wants a bit of solid ground under her feet and commissions a DNA analysis that should provide information about the origin of the perpetrator. Secretly, with colleagues in the Netherlands and of course against all official regulations. That’s efficient, she thinks, just don’t waste any time, but colleague Schmitz can no longer keep up: What Lindholm is doing is not only forbidden, the method is also far too imprecise to be able to deliver reliable results.

Ah, racism!

And, above all, isn’t the procedure racist? Maybe, but it’s about murder. Can you afford to be prejudiced? Of course not, but can one suspect a refugee as a murderer? Exactly that: Charlotte Lindholm definitely doesn’t want to act racist. But somehow it does. And maybe even right about that. Suspicion is suspicion. Wouldn’t it also be racist not to follow a lead out of misunderstood anti-racism?

These are big questions. In the new Göttingen “Tatort” episode “Die Rache an der Welt” you have to see half a setting to notice: Aha, racism! The topic is discussed in a differentiated manner, one has to admit that, but the whole thing is still tiring. A bit like school television. With every sentence it is clear what the screenwriter (Daniel Nocke) had in mind. And what should we think about it? At least there is a surprise at the end. Things are not that simple after all.

Scene of the crime: “The revenge on the world”: Sunday, October 9th, May 20th on SF 1, 8.15pm on ARD.

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