2024 - Zurich “Tatort” with Carol Schuler: About monkeys and people

The new Zurich “Tatort” appears in the evening (8:05 p.m. on SRF 1). “Of Apes and Men” is the seventh Swiss crime novel – and the first to win a prize in Germany. The actress Carol Schuler now reveals what makes this case one of her favorites and how the crime thriller was received at the premiere.

Carol Schuler from Zurich has been in front of the camera since she was a child. In 2002 she was awarded Best Actress at the Swiss Film Awards for her role in “Dear Brad”. She was only 12 years old at the time.

She completed her acting training at the European Theater Institute in Berlin until 2009. She was then seen in other films and plays.

Since 2019 she has been playing Inspector Tessa Ott in the Zurich crime scene alongside Anna Pieri Zuercher – including in the latest award-winning crime thriller “Of Monkeys and People”.

SRF: The film won the award for best screenplay at the German TV Crime Festival. It was written by Lorenz Langenegger and Stefan Brunner. Did you also have a hand in it?

Carol Schuler: The credit clearly goes to the screenwriters, I don’t want to take that away from them. The case is one of my favorite cases because it is very, dare I say it, wild. But of course we always work together with the editors and the scriptwriters, especially when it comes to our characters. This is our seventh case, so we already know our characters Tessa Ott and Isabelle Grandjean pretty well. That means we think about character development.

The crime thriller has a lot of humor in it, we were often able to improvise.

You took part in the Television Crime Prize in Wiesbaden. How did you experience that?

It was great. We were there when the film was shown to an audience for the first time. The others only see it on television on Sunday, but a small audience was able to see the crime thriller beforehand. He arrived very well! We’re always a bit nervous because we’re sitting in the audience and don’t know how the crime thriller will be received.

In “Of Apes and Men”, detectives Tessa Ott and Isabelle Grandjean are confronted with a mysterious series of murders – which also affects a chimpanzee.

The setting is various locations in Zurich, including the main train station and the university hospital. Zurich Zoo plays a special role in the seventh Swiss crime thriller.

Watch the crime scene on SRF 1 (April 14, 2024, 8:05 p.m.) or on Play SRF at.

What exactly makes this “crime scene” worthy of a prize?

When I first read the script I had a feeling like the Coen brothers or Guy Ritchie. There are a lot of exaggerated characters portrayed by really great actresses. It’s a great cast! It’s also the collaboration with the director Michael Scherrer – he gave us a lot of freedom. The crime thriller has a lot of humor in it, we were often able to improvise. That’s also why we had such a great time on set. You can also tell in the film if you had fun shooting it.

In Switzerland you are best known as “Tatort” detective Tessa Ott. How do you deal with this label?

I’m lucky that I get to do a lot of other things – including music, theater and other films. That’s why it’s not a problem for me. But of course: In Switzerland I am mainly known as a “crime scene” detective. But of course I don’t have a problem with that.

It’s also a nice label.

Of course, it’s a great label!

The interview was conducted by Jennifer Bosshard.

“Of Apes and Men”