After 16 years, Sabine travels back to her home village. The occasion is a class reunion. She wants to return to Vienna that very evening. She has only come anyway because things are still not settled between her and her childhood sweetheart Leonhard. The joy of their reunion is overshadowed by the disappearance of his daughter. The events awaken a sense of déjà vu in her. In addition, she learns of the suicide of her former best friend. She directs her suspicions towards her former teacher, the village's great patron, Dr. Körbler. "Körbler loves children", she writes on a note, which she anonymously passes to Leonard. The girl had tutored with Körbler before she disappeared. Sabine obviously has good reason to suspect the seemingly harmless old man.
Acting
Elisabeth Lanz carries suspicion like a second skin.
Direction
Barthel makes Austrian villages feel claustrophobic.
Director
Holger Barthel
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Austrian TV movies of this era often explored postwar institutional corruption—Körbler embodies the 'respected local figure' archetype that protected abusers for decades.
Sabine never physically confronts Körbler; the film's tension comes from watching her realize the system protects him. Her anonymous note is both desperate act and tragic limitation.
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