Der Polizist und das Mädchen (2018)

Martin Manz is a police officer in rural Bavaria, a loving husband to Anja, who is heavily pregnant, a devoted son who tenderly cares for his elderly father, and a respected board member of the handball club. He has to investigate Miriam’s accident. She was hit by a car in the woods at night and is the daughter of his best friend, Frank. She is in a coma, and it is uncertain whether she will ever wake up. Her father wants to find the person who did this to his daughter. In the process, he neglects his job and the handball youth team he coaches, and even attacks an innocent bystander because the man is driving a damaged car and refuses to tell him how it was damaged. Martin makes evidence of the accident disappear, hides his damaged car in his father’s barn, and tries to dissuade Frank from looking for the culprit. Walter Nachtheim, his father’s retired doctor, who is an alcoholic, has figured out that Martin must have been the driver, and gives him a deadline to turn himself in. Martin repeatedly starts to confess everything to his wife and writes a letter to Frank, but he can never bring himself to come clean. So he tries to buy himself more time and silence the doctor with a large sum of money. But after promising his wife outright that he will buy a house, he can no longer keep up the offer. He visits the doctor at home, beats him to death, and stages the apartment to make it look like a fatal fall down the stairs. He damages the doctor’s car in a way that matches the damage from Miriam’s accident. Just as Martin thinks he has his life back under control, Frank happens to spot his damaged car in the barn. He waits for his friend at the police station and demands that he turn himself in immediately. When Martin hesitates, Frank lunges at him and beats him up. After Frank lets go of him, Martin shoots his best friend and later claims that he acted in self-defense. In the final scene, his club honors him for his heroic deeds. Sitting in the audience—in a wheelchair—is Miriam, his first victim, staring at him silently.