The disappeared family

Start of the year on ZDF: New case for Heino Ferch and Barbara Auer in Nordholm – from the makers of “Death of a Girl”.
Part 1: Monday, January 7, 2019, 8:15 p.m.
Part 2: Tuesday, January 8, 2019, 8:15 p.m.

The commissioners Simon Kessler (Heino Ferch) and Hella Christensen (Barbara Auer) return and must once again investigate in the fictional small town of Nordholm on the Baltic coast. No one knows the depths of people there as well as the two of them.

Four years after the murder of a schoolgirl (“Death of a Girl,” 2015), the small town of Nordholm is once again shaken by a stroke of fate. A family father from Hella Christensen’s (Barbara Auer) immediate neighborhood is found dead on the steep slope of the beach. Mother Anna (Bernadette Heerwagen) and daughter Lilly (Zoe Malia Moon) have disappeared without a trace. Without leaving a note. Without taking care of the cat.

No one knows where they are. Is son Tom (Timo Hack) the only survivor? He was on a class trip. Simon Kessler (Heino Ferch) from the homicide department takes over the investigation. For him, everything points to an extended suicide. His colleague Hella Christensen doesn’t want to believe it. She knows the family and is absolutely sure that the father of the family would not be capable of such an act. But the longer they investigate, the more the doubts pile up.

What was the real state of the marriage between the dead man and his missing wife? While Kessler takes the boy under his wing, all the clues lead to the community of the village. Do any of them have anything to do with this crime? Are the mother and daughter also dead, or are they perhaps still alive and in desperate need of help?

In Nordholm, events begin to repeat themselves: People suspect each other, Kessler and Hella encounter lies and secrets everywhere in their fight against time.

Photos: © ZDF/Marion von der Mehden/Gordon Timpen

“Death of a Girl”

The ZDF two-parter was one of the best-watched fictional prime time programs in 2015, with eight million viewers, and Barbara Auer was nominated for the 2016 GOLDEN CAMERA in the category “Best German Actress” for her role in “Death of a Girl.”

A murder throws a tranquil town on the Baltic Sea into turmoil, with everyone suspecting everyone else. Experienced inspector Hella Christensen (Barbara Auer) and her new supervisor Simon Kessler (Heino Ferch) from Kiel face a challenge. Director Thomas Berger (“Angst – Der Feind in meinem Haust”) staged the crime thriller with a prominent and top-class cast: In addition to Heino Ferch and Barbara Auer, the cast includes Anja Kling, Jörg Schüttauf, Hinnerk Schönemann, Johann von Bülow, Rainer Bock, Gustav Peter Wöhler, Peter Striebeck. The screenplay was written by Stefan Holtz and Florian Iwersen. Broadcast dates on ZDF were February 9 and 11, 2015.