GER24 Scorched Earth

Direct from the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, Mišel Matičević (EXILE GFF21, BABYLON BERLIN) delivers a standout performance in moody crime thriller Scorched Earth, the second part of writer/director Thomas Arslan’s (IN THE SHADOWS) planned trilogy. Twelve years after career criminal Trojan (Matičević) was forced to flee Berlin, a desperate search for work leads him back to the city. But Berlin and crime have changed since then and the digital world has taken over, with his old contacts no longer of much use. Unwilling to go into cybercrime, it takes some time before he can secure a job via his handler Rebecca, who offers him a lucrative contract: the theft of a painting by Caspar David Friedrich. The heist unites Trojan with getaway driver Diana (Marie Leuenberger, CAGED BIRDS GFF22), old acquaintance Luca and cyber expert Chris. Everything looks promising, but the shadowy client and his middleman Victor (Alexander Fehling, LABYRINTH OF LIES, THE CAPTAIN GFF19) have their own plans agenda and soon the meticulously planned heist gets out of hand, and it becomes all about survival.