ARD/MDR POLIZEIRUF 110: BLACK BOX, am Sonntag (03.07.22) um 20:15 Uhr im ERSTEN. Adam (Eloi Christ) trickst Brasch (Claudia Michelsen) aus und greift nach ihrer Waffe. © MDR/filmpool fiction/Conny Klein, honorarfrei - Verwendung gemäß der AGB im engen inhaltlichen, redaktionellen Zusammenhang mit genannter MDR-Sendung bei Nennung "Bild: MDR/filmpool fiction/Conny Klein" (S2+). MDR/HA Kommunikation, 04360 Leipzig, Tel: (0341) 300 6477 oder - 6463

They sit together in the train compartment. Two young men in their early twenties. They kiss. Throw each other unequivocal looks. Are close. For one, Tomi (Kai Müller), it’s a bit uncomfortable, he doesn’t want to show it in public. The small train compartment is empty, only they are sitting in it. Suddenly the compartment door opens. A man, earplugs, on his mobile phone, talking loudly. It sounds like a difficult conversation. The stranger disturbs. Suddenly one of the two young men, who were just close, takes the emergency hammer and hits the stranger abruptly and repeatedly. Adam Dahl (Eloi Christ) is completely beside himself.

The new case of the Magdeburg chief inspector Doreen Brasch (Claudia Michelsen) in the ARD “Polizeiruf 110” series is entitled “Black Box” and was staged by director Ute Wieland from a screenplay by Zora Holtfreter. It is Doreen Brasch’s 15th case – the last one, “The Condemned”, was a full year and a half ago. At the same time, “Black Box” picks up a central motif from “Der Verkurtte”: Brasch’s confrontation with the violent Wegner couple, who had severely attacked and abused her in the basement of Wegner’s remote homestead.

As a result, Brasch’s doors must always be open, the memory keeps coming up uninvited while she interrogates the young perpetrator Adam Dahl, who absolutely can’t remember anything for which he was accused – namely the manslaughter of the stranger from the train compartment , whose name was Christof Oschmann and to whom there must be some connection – is a white spot on the memory map.

“Black Box” is not about the recordings of a flight recorder or the like, but about what is retained in the memory and what is not, what is deeply imprinted, even though it may have been decades ago, and what seems lost forever.

Torment for the young Adam Dahl, who is in custody, because he has killed a person whom he obviously does not seem to know. He can neither give a motive nor draw from memory. At the same time, Commissioner Brasch suffers from her memories of the Wegners. As is so often the case, this uncomfortable, unorthodox investigator stands in her own way and ultimately hinders her own investigations, which her superior, detective Uwe Lemp (Felix Vörtler), observes with visible concern and empathy. “Black Box” is a very unique case: for a long time it seemed as if the situation was completely clear. Adam Dahl killed the stranger on the train. The only thing that needs to be assessed is what punishment he can expect.

But Doreen Brasch suspects more behind it. Against the strikingly clear will of Adam Dahl’s parents – the retired LKA director Klaus-Volker Dahl (Sven-Eric Bechtolf) and his wife, the psychologist Bianca (Corinna Kirchhoff) – Brasch follows tracks that soon go deeper into the Dahl family lead in than this is dear. Something lies dormant in the distant past, which should continue to rest there as far as possible. Another white spot.

On the one hand, “Black Box” tells of the inner state of the protagonist Brasch, who fights against the burdensome memory flashes that she carries around with her from her last case. On the other hand, this case stands and falls with Adam Dahl’s memory gap: once this gap is closed, Brasch will be a whole lot closer to the truth. The truth they try so hard to keep Dahl’s parents away from. She comes to light late.