Das Ende der Geduld (2014)

After taking six months off to recover from burnout, juvenile court judge Corinna Kleist transfers to the Neukölln Juvenile Court. Driven by her commitment to the people involved, she tries to streamline bureaucratic procedures so they can better reflect the psychological realities of juvenile offenders. Her fellow lawyers strongly resist her efforts. She takes action against Nazir, a 21-year-old repeat offender who dominates the drug scene in Berlin’s Hasenheide Volkspark as a clan boss. She tries to get his 14-year-old brother Rafiq, who has only just become criminally liable and has been used as a “drug courier,” out of the scene by giving him a lesson he will not forget. But things do not work out as she had imagined: violence and injustice follow. The development of her initiatives, beset by numerous setbacks and legal failures, wears down the strength of the judge, who lives alone. In the end, she takes her own life. Her life’s work, however—the Neukölln Model—is carried on by others.