Ritter - 35 - Gegen den Kopf

Overview

The 38-year-old Mark Haessler (Enno Kalisch) is found dead on the subway platform Schönleinstraße in Berlin-Kreuzberg - apparently beaten to death by two escaped youths with whom he had previously clashed on the train because they had molested a man with walking disabilities. Haessler can be resuscitated, but then dies a short time later in the hospital. He leaves behind a wife and child. The chief inspectors Till Ritter (Dominic Raacke) and Felix Stark (Boris Aljinovic) try to reconstruct what exactly happened that night on the basis of various witness statements, cell phone networks and traffic and security surveillance. The public pressure is enormous - there have already been several serious injuries in the underground and suburban trains, and now there is even a homicide. The head of the homicide squad (Ruth Reinecke) keeps in close contact with the inspectors. Then a recording of the fateful night can be secured on a smartphone: Two young men who steal an older man's walking stick are clearly visible and are being put out for a wanted manhunt. Shortly thereafter, one of the perpetrators turns up - Konstantin Auerbach (Jannik Schümann). He is accompanied by his lawyer Dr. Thomas (Simon Licht) and weighs heavily on his friend Achim Wozniak (Edin Hasanovic). The previously convicted Wozinak, on the other hand, claims that Auerbach was the driving force and that Haessler struck first... The press is also very interested in the case. The media representatives are always well informed – too well and too early, according to Ritter. Is there a leak within the police force? Finally, Mark Haessler's badly damaged smartphone is found in a park - he was on his lover's answering machine at the time of the crime. And the connection was not broken during the deadly attack - "'In the Head' reconstructs the course of an escalation with a fatal outcome. Dying for a trifle. It is the banality of the trigger that makes us swoon before the act of killing here. And yet it is part of our everyday life," says Grimme Prize winner Stephan Wagner, who directed and wrote the screenplay. The production of carte blanche Film GmbH on behalf of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg for Das Erste was shot in spring 2013 in Berlin.