Das Sahara-Projekt

Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss, crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF 2 in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland. The first episode was broadcast on November 29, 1970. The opening sequence for the series has remained the same throughout the decades, which remains highly unusual for any such long-running TV series up to date. Each of the regional TV channels which together form ARD, plus ORF and SF, produces its own episodes, starring its own police inspector, some of which, like the discontinued Schimanski, have become cultural icons. The show appears on DasErste and ORF 2 on Sundays at 8:15 p.m. and currently about 30 episodes are made per year. As of March 2013, 865 episodes in total have been produced. Tatort is currently being broadcast in the United States on the MHz Worldview channel under the name Scene of the Crime.

Frank, a young taxi driver from Berlin, falls in love with Jessica, a model. But the calls for help from his brother Ritchie bring him back to a tragic reality. For like Frank, he once was a dope fiend. Ritchie, as for him, is still deep in the hell of drugs, torn between getting his doses and trying to find 4,000 marks he owes to his dealers.

A middle-aged man's doubts about himself transform themselves into paranoia about his younger wife's behavior in this psychological thriller. The husband plants listening devices around their apartment and eventually drives the heretofore innocent woman into the arms of one of his co-workers.

German director Hans Noever shot this crime drama in the U.S. in English, an unusual achievement at this time. The setting is Jefferson City, Missouri, and Joseph Randolph (Martin West), a VIP in a fictional electronics company, has just gotten the sack. The company bigwigs insist it is simply because of downsizing, but Randolph is not buying it. Enraged, he gets a handgun (this is the U.S.) and shoots five managers to death. Then he turns himself in and is eventually put in a psychiatric hospital by the police. His family suffers a series of tragedies that leave only his daughter to wonder about why her father was committed to an institution. She joins with a visiting reporter from Chicago and another interested man, and all three start digging deeper into the company's history.

German film.

Film by Hans Noever.