A Perfect Crime (2020)

Title: A Perfect Crime

Year: 2020

Genre: Crime | Documentary |

Season: 1 |

Runtime: 40 min/Episode

Creator: Jan Peter, Georg Tschurtschenthaler                        

Starring: Sam Booth, Günther Classen, Willi Fundermann

7,3/10

In April 1991, Detlev Rohwedder, the head of Treuhand, the East German Privatization and Restructuring Agency, was assassinated in Dusseldorf. This documentary details the strange evidence recovered.

INFORMATIVE MINI-SERIES WHEN NEEDED

A Perfect Crime or Detlev Rohwedder: Un crimen perfecto as it’s originally titled, covers an unsolved murder almost thirty years ago. With experts and ex-con precising and exploits the very idea of how the proceeding of the killing went through, it focuses on a different aspect of the whole ordeal. It uses reenactments to help to tell the story visually. It eerily setting sets the tone from the beginning and the investigation starts as it covers in just four episodes.

The episodes have nothing in-depth type of theme as it only covers aspects of different areas in respective parts. The archive material adds another level of detail the series has.  With the German experts, that talks fondly and has such gravitas that it gives the mini-series at least some weight.  As the crime is still unsolved on who killed Detlev Rohwedder and RAF (Red Army Fraction) who were active between the 1970s and the 1990s, the mystery keeps it interesting. As the story and the speculation on who could have done it, make it watchable. It probably would’ve got the same effect if the story was concluded.

Even if RAF tog responsibility of the murder, they couldn’t prosecute them as there wasn’t enough with evidence. Speculations go further in details with someone who claimed he killed people and was in jail for twenty years and there are experts that point out how mismatched the whole killing was.  As the crime was driven, pointed out by the series, by the civil unrest at the time. Just a month before the killing, a civil movement started with protests and demands for re-election.

Summarized, the series gives an insight into German history back thirty years covering troublesome time for the country. It’s informative and treats the story interesting and provides a new perspective, even if you’re not all familiar with German history from the nineties. The directors use the mystery as the red thread which comes in place whenever cliffhangers are useful. It has an English-dubbed option on Netflix but gives a better experience with English subtitles and original language. Concerning the title is ambivalent and contrary to the subject it has an underlined purpose. The editing is plain and not all-absorbing but it still a series that’s easy to follow and doesn’t demand much energy to follow the storyline that it has. You won’t find here a deep-dive investigative and informative docuseries, instead it shares pedagogic storytelling and provides a mystery of an untold part of German history. Therefore it preserves its authority and gives it a different depth of intel than expected.