Freund oder Feind. Ein Krimi aus Passau (2020)

Frederike, a police officer from Berlin who testified against Arab clan boss Kadher Bahdari, starts a new life in Passau with her adopted daughter, under new identities and in the care of witness protection. She now goes by Frederike Bader and works as a quality inspector at a precision forge, while her adopted daughter Mia works as a sales assistant at Roswitha Hertel’s pastry shop, where she befriends Roswitha’s son, Franz. Frederike had been a team leader in Berlin’s Mobile Task Force (MEK). Her daughter Mia had been imprisoned for two years for drug possession after Bahdari’s clan planted a kilogram of cocaine on her. To protect her daughter from the clan’s harassment in prison, Frederike had passed internal police information to Bahdari. After Mia was released, Frederike reported herself for doing so. At a supermarket in Passau, Frederike comes to the aid of a man she does not know, who is confronting a violent shoplifter. After incapacitating the thief, she does not wait for the police to arrive but flees. The stranger happens to be private detective Ferdinand Zankl. Bader’s selfless, swift and professional intervention, as well as her immediate disappearance, arouse Zankl’s interest. Jochen Mohn, the police officer overseeing Frederike, fears that her cover may be blown after the press reports on her actions. Using the license plate of her vehicle, Zankl tracks down the Baders and gives Mia a gift basket for Frederike. Frederike visits Zankl at his office to thank him for the basket and, while there, installs a hardware keylogger on his computer. Zankl discovers it, however, thanks to footage from his surveillance camera. Because of the Hojōjutsu restraint technique Frederike used on the shoplifter, Zankl suspects she may be a police officer from Berlin, where, according to his internet research, the technique is used. He eventually finds a photo of her on the Berlin police website and discovers her real identity. As a private detective, Zankl is currently following waitress Jana Hoffmann on behalf of wealthy law student Andreas Allendorf. Jana’s boyfriend, Tobias Knechtl, recently died by suicide. Allendorf wants Zankl to make sure Hoffmann leaves Passau, and gives him €20,000 for the job. Zankl hands the money to Jana Hoffmann to persuade her to return to her hometown. The reason for the assignment, and for Jana’s subsequent actions, remains unclear at first. Frederike, who has been following Zankl herself, cannot forget that she is, after all, a police officer. She wonders what Zankl—or his client—wants from the young Jana. Mia misses her old home and secretly sends her grandmother Gisela a birthday cake from Hertel’s pastry shop. This, however, reveals Passau as the women’s whereabouts to Ahmed Bahdari, a nephew of the imprisoned clan boss. To find out more, he breaks into the pastry shop. The pastry chef then notices that a piece is missing from a tray of Ausgezogene pastries, and suspects that the alarm on his delivery van may have been deliberately triggered as a false alarm. At his request, Zankl installs a surveillance camera in the pastry shop. Zankl suspects that the break-in was motivated by an interest in Mia’s personnel file. Jana Hoffmann asks a drug dealer for a video, offering him Allendorf’s money in exchange. He refuses, however, fearing Allendorf’s connections. Frederike, who is following Jana, manages to steal the dealer’s smartphone, which contains a video that serves as evidence, and sends it to Jana. Jana also receives a beer mat from a priest, bearing a message Tobias Knechtl left in the church before taking his own life. It is only at the end of the film that it is revealed that Jana Hoffmann had been drugged and raped. Her boyfriend, Tobias Knechtl, had been unable to help her and apparently could not come to terms with it. Allendorf and his three friends are arrested by the police at the end. Ahmed Bahdari manages to track down Mia and Frederike. He sets out to kill them, but Zankl knocks him unconscious. Zankl takes Bahdari into a forest, where he makes him dig his own grave. Bahdari then gets the upper hand and makes Zankl continue digging the grave for himself. While digging, Zankl comes across an archaeological find: a skeleton and a metal spike, which he uses to catch Bahdari off guard and kill him with a stab to the neck. Zankl himself has been badly shot by Bahdari during the struggle. Desperate, he tries to call Frederike for help. Unaware of his condition, she brusquely rejects him, full of distrust and antipathy, and Zankl collapses.