Close to Home Murder in the Coalfield (Lauchhammer – Tod in der Lausitz) is a German murder-thriller series that premiered on March 22, 2023, on Netflix. Directed by Till Franzen and written by Frauke Hunfeld alongside Silke Zertz, the story follows a series of unsolved murders that had been occurring for a long time in a small town.
The series stars Misel Maticevic alongside Odine Johne in the lead roles. The rest of the supporting and recurring cast includes Ella Lee, Marc Hosemann, Jacob Matschenz, Lucas Gregorowicz, Hilmar Eichhorn and more. Felix Novo de Oliveira is the cinematographer, and Andreas Weidinger, alongside Christoph Zirngibl, gives the music.
Devastation and shock spread across the small German town following the murder of a young girl named Ramona. The town consisted of a small population, and almost everyone knew each other. It started to make the citizens nervous when they realised that the killer might be one of them.
After Anna and Maik figured out that Martin was the suspect in his high school girlfriend’s murder case, they went over to his residence to find more shreds of evidence linking him to Ramona’s death. However, he was nowhere to be found and had already escaped the house. Anna successfully manages to open the locked door to his room and finds a computer. But she was unable to check the hard drive as it was heavily password protected. Upon searching, she finds a QR code attached to his father’s photo frame, which was the password of his storage device.
Anna bypasses the system encryption successfully and discovers Martin’s horrible secrets. She finds out that he was actively part of an incel community and often discussed causing violence towards women with other men. The chat screen was filled with explicit images of animated women and graphic language describing them. He belongs to a section of the male population that is unable to form platonic or intimate relationships with women. The intense hatred and hostility towards females is rooted in misogyny and bigotry, which often leads them to commit atrocities against them. The thought of a confident woman who expresses herself freely enrages that section of men.
Eventually, it is revealed that he only targeted women. He first committed murder during his adolescence when his female friend refused to offer him sexual favours. This led him to fester brutal emotions towards women, which motivated him to commit heinous crimes. Nevertheless, he must have realised that it was difficult to lure adult women who were cautious of their surroundings. So he started to prey upon young girls, specifically unguarded minors. This could also be linked to his first murder and, specifically, chose adolescent girls to re-live that moment continuously.
Martin was devoid of any emotions or empathy towards his victims. His unwarranted rage towards the female population was often scary and did not have any cure. He developed such unhealthy thoughts when he was young and did not receive any help. Such negative feelings remained unchecked for a long time and turned into more intense concepts, which he began to share with an online community and received enormous amounts of approval for people with a similar thought process.
He also actively engaged in stalking and collecting information about his next targets. His way of committing a crime was very methodical and ritualistic. Souvenirs from his victims were his most prized collection. He kept them like trophies on a shelf which indicated that he was engaged in this activity for a long time. However, in the end, due to the police’s thorough investigation, they were able to save a victim. When caught, Martin took his own life, which explains his troubled mental state.
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