When the father thinks his own daughter is fake

It's always said that a detective clears a case. A commissioner is therefore a scout. As such, he is currently having a particularly difficult time (although: scouters probably always had a difficult time, but that would take us too far here).

Clarity, bringing light into a dark context, seems to have become almost impossible in times in which everyone is increasingly following their own light into and through the darkness of society as a whole (by the way: it's not darker than it used to be, but even that would lead too far here).

It's actually quite an interesting phenomenon for what is probably the most contemporary genre of all. How do you talk to someone whose reality is so completely different from yours as, say, Saturn's is from yours?

Who has become so twisted, obstinate in his perception, in the feeling of being pursued, that nothing can reach him anymore. How do you get him to make a statement? And what is it worth if its truth is not based on rationality, in whose worldview the light of what we commonly took for enlightenment sparkles in vain?

Actually, the "crime scene" for exactly this phenomenon would be the ideal laboratory. Creating an experimental arrangement for this is of course a heroic act. To do it in Dresden of all places, which the rest of Germany regards as the center of darkness and conspiracy mystics, above all. That's why we want to plead mitigating circumstances in the face of "cat and mouse", the new Dresden case. At least you tried.

The case is as follows: A woman is kidnapped. She is a journalist. With a tabloid that thrives on throwing fuel on the fire of social trouble spots.

A man with a mouse mask shows them online. On a platform where conspiracy mystics can let off steam. He gives the police one day to free 150 missing children. The children's images are edited into his video.

That looks very chic. He sends light signals into the conspiracy world. Sinistre circles have allowed the children to disappear, covered by the police and politicians, by the system. That's what he thinks. A man like QAnon.

The swarm says that the signals are coordinates. About Atlantis or whatever. Schnabel – head of the Dresden commissariat, who had not previously attracted attention due to his excessive Pegida distance and intellectuality – exploded. Whether nobody notices how stupid everyone is through this network.

And then he comes with the Sing Sing prisoner's tapping code. And then the journalist is dead when no child is free and Schnabel (Martin Brambach) poignantly and personally addresses the kidnapper.

The mouse man apologizes before he shoots her, telling her not to take it personally. He's actually a nice guy. And then Schnabel lies where the journalist lay.

The case is called “Cat and Mouse”. Jan Cronauer and Stefanie Veith wrote it. Gregory Kirchhoff directed it. Cat and Mouse is a thriller. Time is short. Time is running out. It is night over Dresden.

There isn't much time to think. It's better like that. Because otherwise you could think about fathom-deep logical breaks, about artificial dramaturgical braking or acceleration actions with potentially fatal consequences in the end

About over-dramatization, about over-moralizing, about the music, which at the end - after all, we are in Richard Strauss-Stadt - ends in a "death and transfiguration" paraphrase, which in view of the story is rather uncomfortable. But that's just by the way.

Actually, "Cat and Mouse" is a triumph, despite its intellectual dullness, its fleeting nature and its good intentions. And that has to do with Hans Löw.

Hans Loew is Michael Sobotta. Actually a good man. Helpful, devoted. Especially towards young people. A confidant. Also irritable though. A man on the edge of a knife.

His daughter has disappeared. She was 17, her name was Zoe. A school trip. Then she was gone. Sobotta caught her in bed with her boyfriend. Then he beat up his friend.

Then she wrote a letter. Sobotta thinks it's fake. How he eventually thought the whole world was fake. And now the whole world wants to point out that the whole world is fake.

That the truth about the world is very different. That the police and politicians work together with kidnappers of children, with young people. With kidnappers of girls like Zoe. Of course she wasn't kidnapped. She just wanted to leave.

But now to Hans Löw. There is quite a lot of truth in the dialogues written by Jan Cronauer and Stefanie Veith. But there is infinitely more truth in the face of Hans Löw.

When this Michael Sobotta in his kidnapping loft, Schnabel sitting across from him, receives a call from his daughter, whom he believes is dead or at least in the dark dungeon of some system criminal. You have to look at what is happening in Hans Löw's face. Do you have to.

How facial expressions start to move. How it reflects every microtwitch in Michael Sobotta's thinking and conscience. Who wants to be a good person and believe that everything is fine. And doesn't want to admit it. At least not anymore.

And again a little later. When they sit across from each other. Zoe and Michael. And Zoe tries to stop him from committing a second murder. And Sobotta's face almost threatens to break. And Sobotta finally decides for the dark side. And says, "That's not my daughter."

Hans Löw can do that like almost no other. This shattering of the bourgeoisie reflect. A very nice one. One of us. One from which, however, at any time among the delicate, civilized, well-meaning, vulnerable, the carefully controlled violence breaks out. And he's frightened about it.

There's something else frightening about the end of Cat and Mouse. That has nothing to do with Hans Löw. We only know how frightening it really is when we see the next Dresden "crime scene".