Akte Golgatha (2010)

Archaeologist Arno Schlesinger has discovered in Israel what is believed to be the tomb of James, the brother of Jesus Christ. An ultraconservative Roman Catholic secret order called In Nomine Dei wants to prevent this discovery, which could shake the foundations of the Christian faith, by any means necessary, and therefore sends contract killers to the excavation site. They try to kill Schlesinger with an explosion, but the professor survives, severely injured. Three weeks later, however, he dies during a liver transplant made necessary by his injuries. Felicia Schlesinger, the dead man’s daughter, who has had no contact with him for some time, is informed of her father’s death by his attending physician, surgeon Dr. Gropius. Shortly before the operation, her father had given him the keys to his VW Beetle. He hands them to her. Her father had wanted her to repair the car. Using her father’s cell phone, which she finds in the Beetle, she receives a call from his assistant, Sheba Yadin. She wants to travel to Germany immediately to speak with Felicia. Shortly afterward, Felicia learns that the transplanted liver had been poisoned. The assistant, who has since arrived, is shot by members of the secret order before she can explain anything further. Together with Dr. Gropius, whom Detective Inspector Ingram is pursuing as the prime suspect because of the transplant and because his fingerprints are on the gun used to shoot the assistant, Felicia tries to solve the murder. She realizes that her father used motifs from her novels as clues. A key shaped like a pine cone leads her to a mountain hut where Professor Schlesinger spent the last days before his death. A calendar there points to a laboratory in Rome. The killers threaten to torture Felicia, but she manages to escape and finds a note in a bottle of olive oil from Gethsemane telling her to “search at home.” Her father’s home, however, had long been Jerusalem, so Felicia and Gropius travel to Israel via Jordan. They meet the excavation director, Yusuf, who takes them to the site. An inscription on the tomb lid reveals that the discovery is even more sensational than previously known: it is the tomb of Jesus, and his remains would prove that, contrary to the biblical account, the Savior did not rise from the dead. At the moment of their success, representatives of the secret order arrive. They shoot Yusuf, who collapses to the ground, seriously wounded, and throw Felicia and Gropius—bound and weighed down with stones—into an underground mountain lake. Unnoticed by their attackers, Gropius frees himself and rescues Felicia and Yusuf at the last moment. After their narrow escape, Gropius and Felicia argue. The doctor wants to abandon the investigation, but the writer insists on looking for further clues in Rome and gets on the bus. When Gropius happens to see the scene with Veronica’s veil in a Passion play, he realizes where Schlesinger got Christ’s DNA, which he used to identify the remains from the tomb. He stops the bus, and he and Felicia drive to Turin together. At the church, Bishop Calvi confirms that the professor had a piece of the Shroud of Turin. The killers from In Nomine Dei have followed Felicia and Gropius to Turin and kidnap them and the bishop, taking them to the secret order’s residence. There it is revealed that Father Marcus, who worked at the Munich hospital, was responsible for the poisoned liver. Cossiga, leader of the ultraconservative group, intends to burn the three prisoners at the stake as heretics, but at the last moment the police, led by Ingram, rescue them. While the detective inspector has an audience with the Pope, Felicia and Gropius set off for home in Germany. On the way, while trying to adjust his seat, Gropius finds the “Golgotha File,” in which Schlesinger had collected his spectacular research findings. Felicia realizes that a scarab she found in Christ’s tomb pointed to the car. Felicia now suggests either publishing the file or selling it to the Vatican for ten million. Relieved to have survived the adventure, Felicia kisses Gropius, who has stood by her throughout.