"Police call 110" from Rostock: A completely normal family

Once again it was not a classic criminal case that developed on the Baltic Sea, "Daniel A.

"Police call 110" from Rostock: A completely normal family

Once again it was not a classic criminal case that developed on the Baltic Sea, "Daniel A." was more interested in interpersonal bumps, in focus: lead actor Jonathan Perleth, who brought authentic energy to the titular hero. And then there was the new one.

"It's awesome to see me like this again," says Jonathan Perleth in the NDR interview on the recent "Polizeiruf 110" from Rostock. The Daniel Adamek he plays is actually called Daniela, so the trans man in the film is extremely close to his actor. Perleth, born near Rostock in 1994, had been taking testosterone for just six months at the time of shooting and is also in transition. A year later, shortly before the broadcast, his first leading role now offers a special look into the past. "In this way you notice much more how much has changed in the meantime. But I also think it's nice that it's been recorded in this way. That's special."

The most recent case from Rostock was special anyway. On the one hand there was the newly composed investigator duo with regular Katrin König (Anneke Kim Sarnau) and Bukow's successor Melly Böwe (Lina Beckmann), who were still a long way from getting used to each other in the second case. It is not surprising that König's colleague's account is lower than that of the newcomer, who enters the scene with rolls and bravura and is not deterred by the gristly mix of situations in the station.

Actor Jonathan Perleth had to shoulder the eponymous feature. For his film father, a stressed-out police officer (Jörg Witte), who is pushed to his limits by the status of "single parent", there should be one thing above all at home: "A completely normal family." This is where director Dustin Loose and author Benjamin Henssler started their story "Daniel A." tried to make the inner turmoil of a person in gender transition visible, or better, tangible, and to help the trans phenomenon at prime time to do just that, namely a piece of normality. Opinions may differ as to whether this has to happen in the crime thriller subject, but the end result spoke for itself, even if one or the other would have preferred to watch a "completely normal crime thriller" at home on the sofa.

But that doesn't happen in Rostock, that should have been known for a long time, and so the weighty topic fits in here best. Perleth does a convincing job, and the way bow and king dance around each other is, as expected, a spectacle in itself. In addition, Loose and Henssler also show a pinch of subtle humor and give the potentially charged topics of transgender and coming out a lighter touch. "I'm Armin, I'm a car mechanic, and I'm a trans man," says Daniel's buddy in a pub chat with Katrin König, and the fact that this trans man looks more like Meister Röhrich from a Werner comic than Boy George has snappy charm.

Director Dustin Loose: "It's not about what someone calls themselves and what others think they can say or not, but that we live together in this country and that we are all people together. And that we're not always the painful shoes that our counterpart tries to walk in, or the heavy backpack that almost everyone carries with them." Mission accomplished!

You can already look forward to seeing Jonathan Perleth again elsewhere, as well as to how things will continue with the Rostockers, Böwe and König. If you wanted to venture a prognosis, then perhaps that at the latest in the next but one beer - or something harder - will be hissed together.