20/49
Twelve years after his escape, career criminal Trojan returns to Berlin. A valuable painting is to be stolen in the city. But the meticulously planned heist soon gets out of hand. Im Schatten (2010) follows. During the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, the audience saw how the professional criminal Trojan (Misel MATICEVIC) from IM SCHATTEN (2010) had to leave the capital for an indefinite period. Trojan still operates in a very analogous way: old-fashioned crimes such as theft of tangible objects such as watches, money and paintings. Without connections to a mafia or clan structure, a lone fighter, only occasionally and out of necessity in the team! When a coup in the Ruhr area does not go as planned, Trojan has to return to Berlin to explore old contacts (Marie-Lou SELLEM). And indeed: Together with three comrades (Tim SEYFI, Marie LEUENBERGER, Bilge BINGÜL), Trojan manages to steal a valuable painting by Caspar David FRIEDRICH. But then the trouble with the mysterious client Viktor (Alexander FEHLING) really begins… At the BERLINALE 2010, IM SCHATTEN by Braunschweig-born director Thomas ARSLAN hit like a long-awaited genre bomb. A gripping genre film made in Germany, told using the cinematic means of the Berlin School. Extremely exciting, with sparse dialogues and violent, explosive moments! ARSLAN follows this up with VERBRANNTE ERDE, seemingly without any problems. Gangster films are still a rarity in German cinema. With incredible precision, the images by cinematographer Reinhold VORSCHNEIDER (also IM SCHATTEN) tell of people living in a dark version of Germany. Dark places, in the shadow of nearby landscapes, but still far from the perception of the police and the normal population. Berlin appears as both a co-player and an adversary of the film’s protagonists. The discreet music by Norwegian composer Ola FLOTTUM (THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, 2021) contributes greatly to this tense atmosphere. It shows a capital that you know and yet don’t know. Many viewers will be able to recognize this urban sprawl with all its roads from their own surroundings. Ghostly places very close to us: scorched earth in the shadows! Misel MATICEVIC (BABYLON BERLIN) is once again very convincing in the role of Trojan, of whom we will probably see more (Thomas ARSLAN is planning a kind of Troy trilogy). GERMAN FILM AWARD nominee Marie Lou SELLEM (nominated for KNOCHEN UND NAMEN / BONES AND NAMES in 2024) is there as the icy mediator. But GERMAN FILM AWARD winner Alexander FeHLing (2019 winner for DAS ENDE DER WAHRHEIT / THE END OF THE TRUTH) is frighteningly good and doesn’t really need to hide from classic villains like Klaus KINSKI and Michael FASSBERSLAN; as long with the third film in his Trojan trilogy, as he did between 2010 and 2024. It keeps on gripping!