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Follow Im Schatten (2010)
Twelve years after his escape, career criminal Trojan returns to Berlin. A valuable painting is stolen in the city. But the carefully planned robbery soon gets out of control. During the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, the audience saw how professional criminal Trojan (Misel MATICEVIC) from IM SCHATTEN (2010) was forced to leave the capital for an indefinite period.
But then the problems with the mysterious customer Viktor (Alexander FEHLING) really begin
Trojan still operates in a rather analog way: old-fashioned crimes, such as stealing tangible objects such as watches, cash and paintings. No connections to the mafia or clan structure, a lone fighter, only occasionally and by necessity in the team! When a coup in the Ruhr area does not go according to plan, Trojan must return to Berlin to get old contacts (Marie-Lou SELLEM). And indeed: Trojan, together with his three companions (Tim SEYFI, Marie LEUENBERGER, Bilge BINGÜL), manages to steal a valuable painting by Caspar David FRIEDRICH.
ARSLAN continues this seemingly seamlessly with VERBRANNTE ERDE
IM SCHATTEN by Braunschweig-born director Thomas ARSLAN hit the BERLINALE 2010 like a long-awaited genre bomb. The exciting genre film made in Germany was told using the cinematic means of the Berlin School. Extremely exciting, with little dialogue and explosive moments of violence! Gangster films are still a rarity in German cinema.
Berlin appears as a companion and adversary of the film’s protagonists
The images by cinematographer Reinhold VORSCHNEIDER (also in IM SCHATTEN) tell with chilling precision about people living in a shadow version of Germany. Dark places, in the shadow of nearby attractions, but still far from the perception of the police and the ordinary population. The restrained music of Norwegian composer Ola FLOTTUM (THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD, 2021) contributes greatly to this tense atmosphere. It shows the capital that you know but do not know.
It’s still exciting!
Many viewers can recognize this urban sprawl with all its roads from their own surroundings. Ghostly places very close to us: a scorched earth in the shadows!Misel MATICEVIC (CRIMINAL ON THE RISE / BABYLON BERLIN) is again very convincing in the role of the Trojan, whom we will see more of (Thomas ARSLAN is planning a kind of Trojan trilogy). GERMAN FILM AWARD nominee Marie Lou SELLEM (nominated for KNOCHEN UND NAMEN / BONES AND NAMES in 2024) is there as an ice-cold mediator. But GERMAN FILM AWARD winner Alexander FEHLING (2019 winner for DAS ENDE DER WAHRHEIT / THE END OF THE TRUTH) is frighteningly good and certainly doesn’t have to hide from classic villains like Klaus KINSKI and Michael FASSBENDER.Thomas ARSLAN doesn’t want to spend as much time with the third film in his Troy trilogy as he did between 2010 and 2024.
