Stéphane Maeder

Bella Block is a long-running German detective television series starring Hannelore Hoger, first broadcast in 1994 on ZDF. In 2010 the 30th series was produced.

A detective leaves the force to take over the family business as an undertaker at the same time as he is being investigated for murder. His close encounters with corpses and his earlier police training lead him to see things some of his ex-colleagues miss and he investigates the crimes he encounters in an unofficial capacity often to the dismay of the official police.

Hoping to become a great singer in Germany, a young dreamer named Ernst Schrämli finds himself drawn into underhand dealings. Determined to escape a suffocating environment that annihilates any kind of creative or artistic impetus, Ernst sells information about the Swiss army to a Nazi spy by the name of August Schmid, who charms and manipulates him. When Ernst’s crime is uncovered, he is sentenced to death for espionage and treason, becoming the first Swiss citizen to be executed.

The film takes us back in time, to a relatively recent yet forgotten period in history, when many women like Lina were forced to fold in the face of unfair and blinkered authorities. The victim of an administrative internment aimed at re-educating her after her so-called "depraved behaviour", Lina finds herself completely abandoned, confused and humiliated. In present day, when she is 60 years old, for the first time in her life, our brave protagonist can finally "spill the beans", thus freeing herself of a burden that has threatened to destroy her all these years.

Conflict-avoidant Thomas just wants a relaxing holiday in the Swiss Alps. But, it's a slippery slope from the beginning. In an effort to repair his own family ties and to impress his boss, he takes his family and his employer's daughter with him. Tragedy strikes and Thomas feels responsible. Should he be his typical passive self? Or risk doing the right thing at the expense of his relationships with his family and employer?

In anonymous administrative buildings, officials are confronted with dissatisfied, even aggressive citizens. Gradually, the cases start to add up and foreshadow bad things to come.