It’s a terrible suspicion that coffee bar owner Francesca Messina has. Why should her family be responsible for her husband’s death? “Who else blows up a person?” Messina asks calmly. Almost clarified in view of the heavy loss.
Engineer Claudio Messina died in an explosion in a container on a motorway construction site. Cologne Commissioner Marie Brand waited in the traffic jam there. So she is at the scene of the crime in no time and immediately senses that something is fishy here. A new case begins for Brand (Mariele Millowitsch) and colleague Jürgen Simmel (Hinnerk Schönemann), which allows the duo to penetrate a network of mafia, undeclared work and shell companies.
With the episode “Marie Brand and the women of honor”, ZDF is sending its successful investigators from Cologne on Wednesday, January 4th (8:15 p.m.) to pretty much kick off the new crime year. Since 2008, they have been hunting criminals, mostly on Wednesdays or Saturdays. A ratings guarantee for the Mainz broadcaster: millions of viewers watch it again and again in front of the television.
Marie Brand: Top team on the trail of the mafia
This time, the highly intelligent inspector shines not only with physical expertise on gases and how they spread. She also identifies a Sicilian accent in Francesca Messina, although the woman says when she delivers the news of her death that she comes from Milan – which has nothing to do with Sicily.
The investigators’ mistrust is aroused. And this is fueled even more when Simmel is unable to access any data on the widow or her husband during internal police research on the computer. Were the two and their children part of a witness protection program? And if so, why? Did they even pronounce their own death sentence with a statement?
As is usual with the 32 crime novels in the Brand series, author Katja Röder tells the story without frills and lots of action. At regular intervals, however, the arc of suspense is drawn. Sometimes a dead person comes along. Sometimes guns find their way into leather women’s handbags. And in the end, two dissimilar sisters meet: “Some betray the family, others protect them.”
Director Michael Zens calmly implements Röder’s book. The camera (Uwe Neumeister) sometimes moves very close to the figures. The audience can practically look them in the eye. Or gets a game of fingertips presented in close-up.
Along the way, they learn about the structures with which undeclared workers are sometimes employed in the construction industry. A by no means far-fetched staging: Customs repeatedly raid construction sites in order to control the working conditions there.
But a “Marie Brand” episode wouldn’t be a “Marie Brand” episode if it weren’t also about the personal well-being of the two protagonists. So there is now a new chapter in Simmel’s love life: After an espresso seminar he is obviously in love and even organizes a bouquet of flowers for his crush.
As fate would have it, he sees the woman a second time that day. This time under completely different circumstances.
