Boys in a fraternity drinking, partying and hitting. This is not unusual. The latter especially not in a conservative "beating" connection, i.e. when fraternity members fight against each other with sharp swords. What is unusual, however, is for a trans man to live in such a community. And beats – better than everyone else. This creates envy and fuels resentment. After it is revealed that this man was born in a woman's body, he is found dead. The motive for the murder is clear – isn't it?
Carlota Brandis
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The living conditions of the murder victim Patrick Kempter (Rafael Gareisen) are determined in the first ten minutes of the Thuringian crime thriller "Theresa Wolff - The Most Beautiful Day". Of course, there is more to it than first suspected.
Patrick was lonely and had no contact with his father (Robert Kuchenbuch), who mourns his daughter Manuela. After she introduces herself as a son, the widower chases Patrick out of the house. As a student in Jena, he joins a fraternity, but no one understands why. There he finds a friend: Martin (Thimo Meitner). He would do a lot for his buddy precisely because he feels more for him than just friendship.
A kind of female Sherlock Holmes
Then there is Markus (Marius Ahrendt), who is increasingly overshadowed by Patrick's fencing talent in the connection. And Patrick's girlfriend Isabelle (Nina Wolf). When she learns that he is a trans man, she reacts almost relieved. Because she has been afraid of sex since her antidepressants paralyzed her libido.
On the night Patrick is killed, he talks about his "most beautiful day" at the club. He will have his first time – as a man, with an operated sexual organ, with his first girlfriend. But that never happens. The next day, forensic pathologist Theresa Wolff (Nina Gummich) and Chief Inspector Bruno Lewandowski (Aurel Manthei) find him dead on the banks of the Saale.
Wolff talks to Patrick's corpse and enlightens others about sensitive transterminities. The physician finds it easier to deal with the dead than with the living. It seems as if she receives unearthly signals and notices things that others overlook – a kind of female Sherlock Holmes.
What happens after the transition
While Lewandowski complains about his job in Isabelle's apartment, Wolff can hear through the walls that she is secretly taking pills. Later, she has the flash of inspiration to take a hair sample from the murder victim. Both clues bring the dynamic duo of forensic scientist and commissioner closer to the solution. However, Wolff's ideas are not really ingenious, rather one wonders why Chief Inspector Lewandowski does not come up with these ideas himself.
The screenwriters Hansjörg Thurn and Carl-Christian Demke have big plans for the third episode of the crime series "Theresa Wolff". The crime thriller benefits from the fact that Patrick's confrontation with his gender is in the past. Instead, the authors put the spotlight on another, rarely noticed aspect of the transition: the aftermath.
While the father's grief for his daughter is almost eaten away by director Bruno Grass in a few scenes, the complicated relationship between Isabelle and Patrick is deservedly the focus of attention.
However, it is also possible that Thurn and Demke have taken on too much. "Theresa Wolff – The Most Beautiful Day" addresses current social issues without explaining their complexity in their entirety. Isabelle's depression serves as an explanation for her behavior in the relationship, but her suicide attempt has been avoided by the healing power of a warm blanket and tea. In the same way, the trace of Patrick's gender reassignment surgeries abroad is lost, without addressing the dangers of the discounted procedures. As a result, the plot seems arbitrary towards the end, especially when the case is solved without a clear murderer.
Theresa Wolff – The Most Beautiful Day will be broadcast on Saturday at 20.15 p.m. on ZDF.