In the old trap

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Films 25 and 26 of the ORF/ZDF crime series have already been shot, and three more are planned. In the now repeated 15th case, Nora Waldstätten and Matthias Koeberlin have to answer the usual mystical question in their search for a murderer: Who is the wolf and who is the sheep?

There is a dead man in his own trap in the Bregenz Forest. He was targeting marauding wolves. The man was killed and then sunk into the historic wolf trap that he had reactivated. Centuries ago, wolves were hunted in such huge pile structures, according to the 15th case in the crime series “The Dead from Lake Constance,” which is now being repeated on 3sat.

This episode with Nora Waldstätten and Matthias Koeberlin as the investigative team Zeiler and Oberländer is less steeped in legend and mysticism than usual. “Among Wolves” lives from a lot of natural romance, from moss, moonlight and forest – and from the magic of lonely wolves, in which some see threatening predators and others see animals from which humans have deprived of their natural environment. Was the trapper killed by his enemies, the conservationists?

What happened back then, five years ago?

After all, high seats are being demolished with chainsaws, and the dead trapper’s car was scratched. Isn’t the forestry worker Schlösser (Robert Stadlober), who found the dead man, suspicious? In any case, he has a particular hatred for animal rights activists. They “creep out of every hole,” he claims. Does he want to blame them for the crime? The shepherdess Ruth Lamprecht (Elfriede Schüsseleder), on the other hand, loves the wolves very much, even though they have just killed another sheep from her. She has a lot to say about the rights of wolves. Nature takes back what humans have taken from it.

The police find this strange. But the research is not made easy for the investigators. Hannah Zeiler in particular encounters a wall of silence in the case, which soon turns into a family drama. Timmy (Jeremy Miliker), the son of a boarding house landlady, has been silent since his younger sister disappeared in the forest five years ago. “Selective mutism,” Hannah Zeiler once again diagnoses razor-sharply.

Strong final appearance by Nora Waldstätten as Hannah Zeiler

But the director (Christian Theede) gives the story time. At some point, Hannah breaks into the child’s room of the girl who once disappeared, with her meaningful, magical world-weary look. Everything here is left as it was back then – perhaps the missing girl will return one day. At least the mother hopes so. When the parents’ argument, from which the children ran away, threatens to continue, Timmy takes flight again. Can the inspector break Timmy’s silence? Who else, if not you, who has always held a silent dialogue with the lonely wolf – from wolf to she-wolf, so to speak – could succeed in this?

“Among Wolves” (first broadcast on November 7, 2022) is the last Lake Constance crime thriller with Nora Waldstätten as an investigator. She was replaced by her fellow actress Alina Fritsch, who appeared as department inspector Luisa Hoffmann alongside Matthias Koeberlin across six films from 2023 to 2025. After her departure, Matthias Koeberlin, as Micha Oberländer, initially investigated alone before being given a new colleague at his side in the 23rd film: Anna Werner Friedmann plays district inspector Mara Eisler, who joined the team after a head shot injury and subsequent rehabilitation. Two films by the unusual duo have already been broadcast and five more have been announced. (This article was created in cooperation with teleschau.)