''Long Live Death'' (german: Es lebe der Tod) is episode 1,001 of , a long-running

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other genres that focus on eith ...

television program, directed by

Sebastian Marka Sebastian Marka (born 1978 in Geneva, Switzerland) is a German film director and editor. Life and work Sebastian Marka was born in Geneva in 1978 and grew up in Königsbach-Stein near Karlsruhe. After completing his Zivildienst (alternative civi ...

. The film had its international premiere at the

Austin Film Festival Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the ...

on October 16, 2016 and was broadcast on November 20, 2016 on the German TV channel

Das Erste Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the nine regional public broadcasting corporations that are member ...

Overview

Chief Inspector Chief inspector (Ch Insp) is a rank used in police forces which follow the British model. In countries outside Britain, it is sometimes referred to as chief inspector of police (CIP). Usage by country Australia The rank of chief inspector is use ...

Felix Murot investigates a

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

, who has already killed five people. All of them were found with their wrists slit in their bathtubs. By means of a fictitious sixth murder, following a similar but different pattern from the previous acts, Murot and his colleagues manage to get the perpetrator to contact Murot. They want to make it clear, that he has nothing to do with the sixth murder. The perpetrator lures Murot to an abandoned house, where he shows the inspector photos of the previous murder victims. When the guy suddenly tries to stun Murot with a syringe from an ambush in the dark, he is overpowered and arrested at the last moment by Murot's intervening colleagues. In the interrogation conducted by Murot, the arrested Arthur Steinmetz confesses to the five murders. However, there is no definitive proof of his guilt. As a motive, Steinmetz states that he had helped people, who were either

terminally ill Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, dementia or advanced he ...

or depressed. During the interrogation, he also makes clear to Murot his own depressive tendencies. Finally, Steinmetz reveals that he has another victim in his power, who is tied up in a slowly filling bathtub and will drown, if not found first. Murot's assistant Magda Wächter recognizes her daughter in the kidnap victim. The terminally ill Steinmetz is willing to reveal the whereabouts of Wächter's daughter in exchange for Murot, whom Steinmetz had chosen as the sixth victim, committing

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

. The chief inspector wrestles with himself for some time, but then apparently agrees. He goes with the already considerably weakened murderer to a hotel room, climbs into a bathtub there and slits his wrists. A bicycle messenger delivers a tip from the dying Steinmetz to the police about the whereabouts of Wächter's daughter, who can then be rescued at the last second - while Murot is in danger of bleeding to death in the bathtub. Shortly before Murot loses consciousness, he manages with his last ounce of strength to turn on the faucet with his hand so far, that the bathtub overflows and the water flows into the hotel corridor and two hotel guests become aware of it. The inspector is rescued. At the end of the film, he enters a café, where Magda Wächter and her daughter are staying.

Cast

Ulrich Tukur Ulrich Tukur (born Ulrich Gerhard Scheurlen; 29 July 1957) is a German actor and musician. Early life and education Tukur spent his youth near Hannover where he finished his final secondary school examinations in 1977. He also earned a high sch ...

: Felix Murot * Barbara Philipp: Magda Wächter *

Jens Harzer Jens Harzer (born 14 March 1972) is a German stage, film, and television actor. He began his career at the Munich Kammerspiele, and has been a member of the Thalia Theater (Hamburg), Thalia Theatre in Hamburg since 2009. He has appeared at the S ...

: Arthur Steinmetz * Ygal Gleim: Ralf Neff * : Holger Wieland * Corinna Kirchhoff: Behavioral specialist * Marina Galic: Aylin Steinmetz * Franziska Junge: Isabel Blum * Sierk Radzei: Daniel Nissing * Ceci Chuh: Daughter of Magda Wächter * Martina Hesse: Mother Steinmetz * Torben Kessler: Martin Richling * Henning Kallweit: Bicycle messenger * Fredrik Jan Hofmann: Paramedic * Eric Klotzsch: Receptionist * Jochen Döring: Emergency physician (uncredited) * Thomas Bartling: Father Murot (uncredited) * Piet Fuchs: Isabel's father (uncredited) * Sascha Hartmann: Dead in tub (uncredited) * Marvin W. Jones: Felix Murot (as a child), (uncredited)

Production

The film was produced by

Hessischer Rundfunk Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; "Hesse Broadcasting") is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting, public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, ...

, a public German television station, and shot on 26 days from June 2, 2015 to July 9, 2015 in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

Releases and screenings

''Long Live Death'' celebrated its

world premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its f ...

at the ''Festival des deutschen Films'' (Festival of German Film) on June 17, 2016. On October 16, 2016, the film had its international and North American premiere at the

. Furthermore, this episode of Tatort was screened at three other U.S. film festivals, the

St. Louis International Film Festival The St. Louis International Film Festival (also known as SLIFF or Cinema St. Louis) is an annual film festival in St. Louis, Missouri, which has been running since 1992. The coordinating organization changed its name to "Cinema St. Louis" in 2003 ...

(2016), the

Garden State Film Festival The Garden State Film Festival is a film festival in the United States held in Asbury Park, New Jersey which debuts more than 200 independent films annually over four days each spring. The festival was founded in 2002 in Sea Girt, New Jersey by D ...

(2017) and the

Nashville Film Festival The Nashville Film Festival (NashFilm), held annually in Nashville, Tennessee, is the oldest running film festival in the South and one of the oldest in the United States. In 2016, Nashville Film Festival received more than 6,700 submissions from ...

(2017). On November 20, 2016, this episode of Tatort was broadcast on German television at 8:15 p.m. The film was shown on the nationwide and public channel

Reception

Critical response

The movie news & reviews resource ''Wearemoviegeeks.com'' praised in its review Tukur's acting, it "has the perfect balance between realism and obsession. He’s great". In addition, the critic notes that obviously "there are comparisons going to be made between U.S. films like

Seven 7 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 7 or seven may also refer to: * AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era * 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era * The month of July Music Artists * Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...

and The

Hannibal Lecter films Hannibal (; xpu, 𐤇𐤍𐤁𐤏𐤋, ''Ḥannibaʿl''; 247 – between 183 and 181 BC) was a Carthaginian general and statesman who commanded the forces of Carthage in their battle against the Roman Republic during the Second Pun ...

, but this modern serial killer noir stands on its own." At the end the reviewer doesn't believe, that he has not seen other works of screenwriter

Erol Yesilkaya Erol Yesilkaya (born Juny 6, 1976 in Istanbul) is a Turkish-German screenwriter. Life and work Erol Yesilkaya was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1976 and then moved with his parents to Krefeld, where he grew up. After he finished the Gymnasium and ...

and director

, because ''Long Live Death'' "is a professional production from top to bottom. Yes, it has blood, it has all the obligatory elements contained within so many other crime thrillers, but it entertainingly conveys grit and underlying horror with all the horror and power that a grim story can convey." Richard Whittaker of

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...

explains, that ''Long Live Death'' is just another Tatort-episode, "but that shouldn't put off first-time viewers. This isn't like diving into the middle of season 10 of CSI, and drowning in old plot lines. Tatort, while it has recurrent characters, is built around stand-alone narratives." He further notes, "if there's any kinship to ''CSI'', it's that (like that show's creators) director Sebastian Marka is a clear acolyte of Manhunter-era

Michael Mann Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ' ...

. But for Whittaker, it remains a mystery at the end of his review that "the producers picked this out of the 1,000 episodes to date as the one to introduce Tatort to American audiences". But he states, "its measured mixing of serial killer tropes and Teutonic musings on mercy and

self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...

are good reason to crack open older case files."

Audience ratings

The first broadcast of ''Long Live Death'' on November 20, 2016 was watched by 8.82 million viewers in Germany and achieved a market share of 23.6 percent for

Awards and nominations

Festival des deutschen Films (Germany) 2016 * Nomination for the ''Ludwigshafener Filmkunstpreis'' in the category ''Best German Film'' for Sebastian Marka

2016 * Nomination for the

Audience award An audience award is typically an award at a film festival (or some other type of cultural festival or similar competition) which is selected by the audience attending the festival, rather than by the festival jury or a group of critics. Examples ...

in the category ''Stories from Abroad'' for Erol Yesilkaya

2017 * Festival Award in the category ''International Narrative Feature'' for Sebastian Marka

2017 *

in the category ''Episodic Competition / Long Form'' for Sebastian Marka

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 6017910
Info about story, cast and crew of ''Long Live Death'' on the ARD-website
(In German). Retrieved February 2, 2021. Tatort 2016 films 2016 television films 2016 television episodes German drama television films 2010s crime drama films German crime films Films set in Germany Films set in Frankfurt 2010s German-language films German-language television shows Television episodes set in Germany Television episodes about murder 2016 drama films 2010s German films Das Erste original programming