In the first season of Marnow Murders, detectives Lona Mendt (Petra Schmidt-Schaller) and Frank Elling (Sascha Geršak) had to rely on each other to get them through a challenging murder investigation.
In season two, which moves the action from season one’s brutally hot summer to an unforgiving winter, their fate lies in the hands of two new faces: after a witness protection mission goes wrong, special investigators Maja Kaminski (Sabrina Amali) and Hagen Dudek (Bernhard Conrad) are called in.
And here’s where the creators of this popular German drama series decided to do things differently. Successive seasons of a show often add new characters – replacements if key cast members have left, or supporting faces that are part of a new storyline. But writer Holger Karsten Schmidt and director Andreas Herzog kept their stars and put their new additions centre stage, too. Two investigations play out separately, one told in flashbacks.
When Mendt and Elling are injured on the job, Kaminsky and Dudek pick up the investigation. Who betrayed details of a witness protection set-up, where has the witness, a 12-year-old Bulgarian orphan, disappeared to, and who would want Mendt and Elling silenced? As they chase answers, Kaminsky realises Dudek has his own secrets. And alongside this, in a cleverly woven parallel narrative, we see the events that led up to this: four bodies found buried in a forest near Marnow, and Mendt and Elling following a trail that leads to a nearby children’s home, and a shadowy organisation that needs to cover its tracks.
The cast say the dual narratives, and filming them separately, created something special.
“At first, when I read the scripts, I thought, wait a minute, this is our series, what are those two doing here? But when we were filming, I completely blocked out the other duo. They didn't exist for me. I was on a different timeline with Petra, and the two storylines don't intersect until late in the series,” says Gersak.
“But there's another important point: during the broadcast of the first season, producer Hajo Kensche called us and asked, “Are you ready for a second season?” When I met Petra later, she said something very decisive: she would only be in it if something developed. She spoke from my heart. I think our writer Holger Karsten Schmidt has really succeeded in telling a crime story in a completely new way.”
Lona Mendt (Petra Schmidt-Schaller) and Frank Elling (Sascha Geršak). Credit: Polyphon / NDR
Sabrina Mali also found the storyline compelling.
“Beforehand, I often heard from colleagues how great this crime series was. One of the best series on German television. Regardless of that, when reading the scripts, I asked myself whether the new story would grab me and whether I found my character exciting. “Right from the start, I sensed that the story, with two pairs of investigators and two time levels, was something very special. Kaminski and Dudek are investigating in the footsteps of the first pair of detectives. During filming, I had no idea what the other pair was doing. There was no contact between us. I placed my complete trust in our director, Andreas Herzog, who guided us safely through the scenes so that in the end, all the narrative strands would fit together perfectly.”
What she couldn’t have expected was an encounter with real police.
“In one scene, I ran across the train station with my gun drawn into a very dark corner. Suddenly, a real police car pulled up, several police officers got out and approached me. I was about to put my gun down and raise my hands. Then they said they had seen me on one of the surveillance cameras and that a policewoman would never snoop around alone and unprotected in such a dark place because it was far too dangerous. The police officers wanted to give us a few tips on how to behave in such a situation.”
Sabrina Amali as Maja Kaminski. Credit: Polyphon / NDR / Oliver Feist
While season one saw Elling facing with family and financial troubles, season two shows us more of what drives Mendt. Having lost her family in a crash, the case involving the orphan Sarah becomes personal.
“At the beginning, Lona tries not to let the case get too close to her, but then there is a moment when her resistance breaks and the feeling prevails that she wants to fight to the death for this child,” Schmidt-Schaller says. “Children have always been her Achilles' heel in a positive sense. But it has isolated itself quite well for a long time. Will the girl awaken maternal feelings in her? I think what's happening there is bigger than any categorisation. Sarah stirs a spark of life in Lona again. The bulwark she has built against her pain collapses. As a result, she also has to let the loss of her family back into her life.”
Rounding out the investigative foursome is a character that actor Bernhard Conrad relished playing. Hagen Dudek hates his boss, he’s keeping secrets from Kaminsky and desperately trying to get to the missing girl before she does, and just whose interests he’s really serving remains unclear for a long time.
“Hagen Dudek is a complex character who finds himself in a state of tension both professionally and privately. Due to a tragic event directly related to his sister, he carries a secret with him for the rest of his life. Preserving this secret is the source of his inner turmoil, equally representing the good and evil within him. Portraying inner conflicts and tensions is extremely interesting and has such wonderful human qualities. I didn't have to search for them for the role, but was able to draw them out piece by piece from the character,” Conrad says.
While season one was developed from Karsten Schmidt’s novel of the same name, and loosely based on real events in a dark chapter of German history, with events unfolding gradually as Mendt and Elling tried to find the connections between a series of seemingly unrelated murders, season two reveals some of its hand early on. Organised crime, missing children, critically injured investigators, case documents that have mysteriously disappeared… something’s clearly rotten. Or is it someone? And that’s where the dual timelines, unfolding just 14 days apart, keep things gripping.
Will Mendt and Elling survive their injuries? Will Kaminski and Dudek find Sarah before it’s too late? And can Kaminski trust Dudek? Her life may depend on it.
This article contains information supplied by ARD / NDR / Polyphon Film.
Seasons 1 and 2 of Marnow Murders are streaming at SBS On Demand.
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Marnow Murders
series • crime • German
MA15+
series • crime • German
MA15+
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