After a police operation catches a serial killer Gabriel Engel in the act, a small town police investigator named Michael Martens is sent to interrogate him in custody as he believes Engel may be involved with the unsolved murder of a 12 year old girl from Martens own small close knit village. As the series on interrogations get under way it’s not long before Engel begins playing mind games with his interrogator until Martens cannot tell if the answers he’s getting are fact or fiction, and it’s not long before Engel has even those close to him under suspicion of the child’s murder. This is an excellent German thriller very much in the style of 'Silence of the lambs' in which the interrogator is very much psychological and intellectual inferior of his prisoner. Overall, this is an intelligent and absorbing thriller which is gripping from beginning to end.
A classy German thriller that begins with a terrific and startling action set-piece. Unfortunately it’s the only one. There are shades of Silence of the Lambs as a serial killer in jail taunts our rural hero cop, but nothing matches up to that opening salvo. The plot becomes more interested in the psychological unravelling of the cop than in thrills or suspense. None of it is convincing, especially when overloaded with annoying biblical overtones. It does pick up again towards the end, but with a length of 2hrs it lacks pace and focus. On the plus side, director Christian Alvart, here making his first major feature in 2005, shows great flair with the camera and this keeps you watching.