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The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Black Forest Murders review – like watching a hugely satisfying puzzle come together
It's never a good sign, is it, to see a young woman going for a run in the woods at the start of a gritty European crime drama? The Black Forest Murders takes the real-life killing of two young women in the south of Germany as its basis, and turns it into an extremely thorough police procedural. The detective work here is complex, precise and painstaking, and there is a sense that the film-makers have no wish to spare viewers any of the intense slog it takes to track down the perpetrator (if indeed the police manage to do so). Nina Kunzendorf is senior detective Barbara Kramer, who grew up in the area but moved to Berlin to make her name in the police force. Now that her father is getting older, and more infirm, she has moved back to her (fictional) small, rural home town in the south, where she is treated as an outsider. Kramer seems like a loner, smokes a lot and is the sort of cop who will slam down the phone when she doesn't like what she's hearing on the other end of it. She is your classic TV lead detective. The force at her command are local people who have remained local, and they largely resent her Berlin ways and lack of community knowhow. But she, too, is contemptuous of their amateur methods, small-town gossip and the low hum of sexism that threatens to rear its head again and again. It's a standard culture-clash setup. When 27-year-old Stefanie Berghoff fails to come home from a jog, it sparks an enormous search for her. Her husband, Tobias (David Richter), could only look more shifty if he started waving around a murder weapon and winking at the camera, but surprisingly, he has a rock-solid alibi. The hunt for Stefanie is complicated by the fact that the entire village has been out to help, even before the police manage to arrive in the area, which means evidence could have been trampled. Kramer is not having any of it. Given the title, and the fact that 'Murders' is not singular, it isn't much of a spoiler to say that Stefanie's body is discovered, and towards the end of the first episode, so is that of another young woman. Both were killed and moved a short distance, leaving 'drag marks', a small detail that I found particularly horrible. The question is whether the two cases are connected. I tend to judge dramas about the violent deaths of women by how much the camera lingers on their naked bodies during the inevitable autopsy scenes, but this is not that kind of drama. It avoids salaciousness, seemingly as a matter of principle. In many ways, The Black Forest Murders shares a modus operandi with The Breakthrough, the Swedish procedural, also based on real-life events, that was a hit on Netflix at the start of the year. Like The Breakthrough, this has a linear and essentially straightforward narrative: crimes are committed, the police investigate, gather up all the evidence they can find, and then we get our answers. Kramer notes that it could be a long road, and tells a story about a 12-year hunt for a killer in Berlin. The drama is essentially forewarning viewers to settle in for the long haul. So we see officers carefully combing the branches of a shrub, under a magnifying glass, in the hope that they might find a speck of something that could offer up DNA. Suspects are interviewed and eliminated, based on rough times of death, which is ascertained in Stefanie's case through the contents of her stomach, the time that her phone stopped working and reports of screams. On the other hand, Kramer counters her own list of evidence, explaining the flaws, or the counterarguments, in the information that has been gathered. Perhaps Stefanie ate later than usual? Perhaps her phone battery died? Perhaps those who heard a scream got it wrong? Something isn't adding up, but over the first two episodes, it's not clear what's wrong, or why. The levels of precision and detail that worked in The Breakthrough's favour are not quite as convincing here. Partly, that is because The Black Forest Murder's tropes are familiar and well worn. There is the conflict between rural and urban, between village and city. There is the outsider looking in, who has her own past to contend with, and must relearn the local knowledge that she has lost. There is even a bit of the female boss being undermined by her male colleagues, Prime Suspect-style. Its attention to every single moving part means that the drama itself moves very slowly, and it is not so much a thriller as a satisfying puzzle, steadily coming together. Not a bad drama, then, but not a revolutionary one, either. The Black Forest Murders aired on BBC Four and is available on iPlayer
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
BBC acquires "gripping" police drama The Black Forest Murders
The BBC has acquired German police drama The Black Forest Murders for BBC Four and streaming service iPlayer. Called Spuren in its native tongue, the mini-series of four 45-minute episodes premiered in Germany back in February. The show is based on a combination of two real-life cases from 2016, and the non-fiction book SOKO Erle, and focuses on the investigation into a woman's bludgeoning to death. Detectives Barbara Kramer (Nina Kunzendorf) and Thomas Riedle (Tilman Strauß) form a large special investigation unit around the case, but their efforts are hampered when they have to deal with a second murder that may or may not be connected, and emerging parallels to a similar case in Austria. The BBC's head of programme acquisition, Sue Deeks, said in a statement: "The Black Forest Murders is an authentic and compelling crime series focussing on the work of a meticulous investigative team. Related: "As well as being a gripping murder mystery, the series offers a detailed look at the challenges of solving complex crimes, and the psychological toll on those involved in such high-stakes investigations." When the show premiered in Germany, local reviewers praised it for for paring back the clichés of the crime drama and focusing on the nitty-gritty process of the investigation, rather than the detectives' personal lives (although some did note that this methodical approach might seem "dry" to some). Elsewhere on iPlayer, the "heartbreakingly beautiful" show Reunion (from the producers of Adolescence) just joined the service, while the first season of acclaimed Australian drama The Newsreader is leaving in a week's time. The Black Forest Murders will air on BBC Four and stream on BBC iPlayer, although dates haven't been announced at the current time. In Germany, the show aired on Das Erste. at at Pandora at at at at at Apple at at at You Might Also Like PS5 consoles for sale – PlayStation 5 stock and restocks: Where to buy PS5 today? IS MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 THE BEST IN THE SERIES? OUR REVIEW AEW game is a modern mix of No Mercy and SmackDown
BBC News
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
BBC acquires four-part German miniseries The Black Forest Murders
The BBC has acquired German four-part series The Black Forest Murders from STUDIOCANAL. Written by Robert Hummel and Martina Mouchot, and based on the non-fiction Walter Roth book SOKO Erle, the series follows a 2016 police investigation into the mysterious murders of two young women in the south of Germany. The Black Forest Murders (4 x 45'), for BBC iPlayer and BBC Four, combines two real-life criminal cases from 2016 in southern Baden into a gripping fictional police drama, focusing on the credible portrayal of the investigative work. A young woman is missing. After an intensive search, her body is found, bludgeoned to death by an unknown assailant. Senior Detective Barbara Kramer (Nina Kunzendorf) of the Lauburg police and her team, including Thomas Riedle (Tilman Strauß), begin the search for the perpetrator. They speak with witnesses and gather evidence but quick successes elude them. The team grows into a large special investigation unit, securing hundreds of clues and attempting to connect them. In addition, they must deal with a second murder, unclear whether it is connected to the first, and parallels to a similar case in Austria that occurred four years earlier are emerging. Under the watchful eye of the concerned public, the police officers face mounting pressure for months, until their persistence is finally rewarded. Sue Deeks, Head of BBC Programme Acquisition, says: 'The Black Forest Murders is an authentic and compelling crime series focussing on the work of a meticulous investigative team. As well as being a gripping murder mystery, the series offers a detailed look at the challenges of solving complex crimes, and the psychological toll on those involved in such high-stakes investigations.' The lead cast are Nina Kunzendorf as Barbara Kramer and Tilman Strauß as Thomas Riedle. Other cast include; Aliki Hirsch, Božidar Kocevski, Atrin Haghdoust, David Richter, Liliane Amuat, Florian Hertweck, Markus Krojer, Katja Bürkle, Sophia Schober and Mira Huber. The Black Forest Murders is a Lailaps Film (a STUDIOCANAL Company) production with SWR and is supported by the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern. The Producer is Nils Dünker, the Executive Producer is Caroline Daube, it is directed by Stefan Krohmer and the Editor for SWR is Katharina Dufner. It is distributed by STUDIOCANAL. SH2
