They were once a happy married couple, then the relationship begins to fail. But did the husband really go so far as to kill his wife? Little by little you get closer to the truth in the relationship and crime drama “The Marianne Voss Case”.
There Fall Marianne Voss
Drama • March 22, 2024 • 8:15 p.m
Why do people stay together when they actually can’t stand each other anymore? The answers to this question are probably as varied as the relationships themselves. In addition to children and money, reputation at stake plays an important role: What should family, friends and neighbors think if you separate? This is why marriages of this type often appear perfect to the outside world. The facade is correct, while things are rumbling inside. And because such toxic arrangements are probably the rule rather than the exception, they provide the perfect source material for cinematic psychological and family studies.
The drama “The Marianne Voss Case,” which is now premiering on ARTE and will be broadcast a few days later on ZDF (Monday, March 25, 8:15 p.m.), is also dedicated to such a marriage and the consequences of its demise. From a criminal perspective, the relationship study is made more difficult by the fact that the eponymous wife is found dead and her husband is suddenly suspected of murder. Did he actually do it?
The “crime scene” at home
If the true crime hype of the last few years has taught us anything, it is that the depths of humanity seem infinite. But that’s not all: it’s becoming increasingly easier to understand that the greatest villainy and cruelty takes place within relationships and families. And of course: that people enjoy watching all of this at home in front of the television. This isn’t new; Those “crime scenes” that offered insights into dysfunctional family relationships have always been among the most popular. If there is also an act of violence or a murder, the, well, somewhat macabre entertainment is perfect. A marriage breaks up, the man kills his wife – or does he?
“How tempting to turn it into a film that asks whether it was really him,” says the TV editorial team responsible for the ARTE and ZDF joint production. And the fictional setting of the crime, marriage and social drama directed by Ulyana Havemann, which is based on a real murder case in a small East German town, is indeed seductive.
Intoxicating and compassionate
“The Marianne Voss Case” is told in a thrilling and compassionate way: the film carefully approaches an initially harmonious marriage that slowly but surely develops cracks. The fact that the story, told in flashbacks, works is also due to the two main actors: Valerie Koch movingly plays the eponymous hairdresser Marianne Voss, who goes missing one day and is finally found dead in the forest by her daughter (Hannah Ehrlichmann).
Jörg Schüttauf understandably embodies the husband Karsten Voss, who is accused of having committed the murder – but repeatedly protests his innocence. The trial takes place in the small town shaken up by the crime, which is not coincidentally located in Brandenburg and therefore in East Germany. The court case not only reveals the depths of a superficially intact marriage, it also illustrates the provincial post-reunification policy in the new federal states after reunification. Voss was one of the winners of the transition and was elected mayor of Griesenow after 1990. Things are looking up, giving the (fictitious) place an upswing that is unusual for the East.
Brilliant acting
On the outside he is a doer, but at home he is a completely different person, as you soon discover. The height of the fall is cleverly staged: While Voss gets involved as a politician, he apparently has nothing to say about his wife. He seeks a way out in an affair, as the flashbacks and scenes in court show. Marianne Voss discovers her husband’s cheating – and from then on things go downhill. However, separation is out of the question. “Perhaps it is the constant that, from Voss’s point of view, is worth maintaining,” says lead actor Schüttauf, describing the character he played, which appealed to him “with its complexity and contradictions.”
The well-loved head of the city, who with his lovely “First Lady” shows what a picture-perfect marriage looks like and about whom hardly a bad word is said even after retirement – can someone like that really murder his wife? This question, which was discussed in the circumstantial evidence trial, supports the “Marianne Voss case” as well as an excellent cast – including Thorsten Merten as an old party friend.
The Marianne Voss case – Fri. March 22nd – ARTE: 8.15 p.m
Source: teleschau – the mediendienst GmbH