13/01/26 – There are new cases for the SOKO Donau/Wien team. The 20th season starts on 23 January at 6 p.m. on ZDF. In the very first case, entitled ‘Vergeltung’, Martin Gruber, Andreas Kiendl, Lilian Klebow, Brigitte Kren, Maria Happel and Max Fischnaller investigate a garage where the body of 61-year-old Werner Novotny is found. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning in his vintage car. Circumstantial evidence point to third-party fault.
The 20th season of SOKO Donau/Wien starts on 23 January on ZDF. Every Friday at 6 p.m., 13 new episodes featuring the tried-and-tested team of investigators led by Martin Gruber, Andreas Kiendl, Lilian Klebow, Brigitte Kren, Maria Happel and Max Fischnaller will be broadcast. During the anniversary season, Gregor Seberg returns as Helmuth Novak and takes over the top job, while Brigitte Kren bids farewell as Colonel Henriette Wolf and enters well-deserved retirement.
Directed by Holger Barthel, the first five episodes also feature guest stars Ines Lutz, Daniel Langbein, Gabriel-Winner Amorin, Edith Saldanha, Nina Fog, Michael Glantschnig, Clemens Berndorff, Matea Novak, Annette Holzmann, Antonia Gohl, Sibylle Gogg, Markus Hamele, Karl Fischer, Paul Hassler, Jakob Schmidt, Helene Pointner, David Jakob, Lino Gaier, Annalena Hochgruber, Pamina Fürst, Dominik Warta, Simone Fuith, Lilly Krainz, Leo Stukenemper, Christoph Stocker and Grischka Voss. Katharina Heigl and Sophie Allet-Coche also directed four episodes each. The TV investigators’ assignments in the federal states take them to St. Pölten and Retz in Lower Austria, to Graz on the Murinsel in Styria, and to Leibnitz and the surrounding area.
Here’s what viewers can expect in season 20:
While Colonel Henriette Wolf is attending a security conference in The Hague and Penny is standing in for her, the SOKO team becomes involved in a case with explosive domestic political implications. And of all people, it is Max Herzog, the sensible German, who does not quite behave in accordance with the rules. Klaus Lechner learns of the alleged accidental death of an old love in Graz. He cannot believe it was an accident and so he begins to investigate other possibilities on the spot. The team is busy recruiting new police officers, delving into the diplomatic realm of the UN and searching the Leibnitz area for runaway teenagers who have got themselves into serious trouble. In a tobacconist’s in a Viennese council estate, someone wins the lottery jackpot, unleashing a wave of criminal energy. Viewers experience with the investigators the stressful world of ‘cleaners’, a family that is almost torn apart by the self-righteousness of the neighbourhood, and a fatal hostage-taking in the name of love.
Credit: Satel Film/Luca Breuer
