Internet-based conspiracy theories can be incredibly powerful. The Dresden investigators experience this first-hand: They are supposed to free 150 children they think have been kidnapped, otherwise their boss will have to die.
What is happening?
The editor-in-chief of a tabloid is kidnapped on the street in Dresden. Shortly thereafter, a video appears on an Internet platform popular with conspiracy theorists, in which the journalist (Elisabeth Baulitz) is tied to a bed. A countdown runs while the kidnapper, dressed in a mouse mask, explains what he actually wants: 150 kidnapped children are said to be being held in a Dresden basement. If they are not freed within 24 hours, the reporter must die.
Although the Dresden detectives Gorniak (Karin Hanczewski) and Winkler (Cornelia Gröschel) can't quite believe the hair-raising story, they do everything they can to find the kidnapped reporter in time before the almost impossible countdown ends. When a SEK operation in a Dresden restaurant is unsuccessful and time is running out, Commissariat Manager Schnabel (Martin Brambach) goes to the press with an appeal to the kidnapper - and the next morning is himself in the hands of the perpetrator.
What is it really about?
About the insane power of internet-based conspiracy theories. "Cat and Mouse" takes "Pizzagate" as a model, which accused the then US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of membership in a child porn ring in 2016. The alleged conspiracy continued to spread on social media until December 2016, when a man armed with an assault rifle broke into the eponymous pizzeria to free the children allegedly being held there - who, of course, never existed.
Roadzapp Moment?
Doesn't exist in this gripping thriller.
Wow-Factor?
Even the first few minutes are staged so boldly (and with a powerful sound) that you can hardly help but be amazed. In a different and deeper way Wow is later an encounter scene between father and daughter, which we will not go into detail here due to the acute risk of spoilers.
How is it?
9 out of 10 points. Gregory Kirchhoff delivered impressively on his debut as the youngest "Tatort" director of all time: With "Cat and Mouse", the 29-year-old has staged an extremely well-rounded and in parts Hollywood-ready thriller.
