Offroad (2012)

The path laid out for Meike Pelzer, the young boss of a family business in Geilenkirchen, seems to have been decided long ago: after successfully completing her business studies, she is expected to marry her longtime boyfriend, Philip, and soon take over her father’s company. Everything changes when she visits an auction. By winning a bid on a Jeep that had previously been confiscated at the German-Dutch border, Meike moves closer to fulfilling a long-held dream: she wants to take an off-road trip through the Sahara. During the auction, Julian and Ulf show up and offer to buy the vehicle from her for many times what she paid, but Meike politely turns them down. The next morning, she discovers 50 kilograms of cocaine in the trunk during a test drive. She decides to go to the police and tell her fiancé about what happened. But when she goes to his home, she is in for a nasty surprise: through the window, Meike sees Philip cheating on her with her best friend. Hurt and angry, she decides to leave her quiet life behind for the time being and sets off in the Jeep toward Düsseldorf. Once there, Meike tries to sell the cocaine outside a nightclub at night. But when she tries to sell it to two potential buyers, they beat her bloody. Julian and Ulf, who have been tracking Meike with a GPS device and are supposed to recover the cocaine for their unscrupulous boss, Tuschi, see their chance to finally take the car keys from the helpless Meike. Just in time, however, the two are driven off by Salim, a clubgoer who comes to her aid, and his girlfriend, Sarah, who take Meike in for the night. Days later, when Salim sets off for home in Berlin, Meike spontaneously offers to go with him. During the drive, she tells him the secret of her valuable cargo. Once they arrive in the capital, Salim arranges a first deal through his sister, Özlem. After this more or less successful start to their “business,” Meike and Salim celebrate at a nightclub and spend the night together in the Jeep, where they also have sex. Tuschi, Julian, and Ulf manage to pick up Meike’s trail and first threaten Salim with a knife. In a chaotic scuffle, during which shots are also fired, the three attackers leave the apartment empty-handed. Salim would now rather call the police and put an end to everything. When Meike returns to her hotel, she finds that her room has already been ransacked by her pursuers, who are waiting for her in a car outside. She manages to escape in the Jeep, but the three continue to pursue her. After a wild chase, she gets away unharmed, while her pursuers’ car is completely wrecked. Desperate, Meike turns to Philip, whom she tries to forgive. He flies to Berlin right away and moves with Meike into the apartment of a friend who is currently abroad. Meike tells him about how she came to possess the cocaine by accident, and Philip immediately plans to sell all of it through shady contacts he knows from his time as a legal intern in Berlin. That evening, Meike takes Philip to a nightclub and discovers wanted posters of herself there. Contrary to expectations, the posters are from Salim, who suddenly appears on the dance floor as well. After a brief mix-up and a scuffle between Salim and Philip, Meike and Philip leave by taxi. The day of the big handover of all the cocaine approaches. Meike and Philip meet his former boss in a large parking lot, where he is supposed to hand them the money. But police officers surprise them and arrest all three. To everyone’s great surprise, the forensic search finds only detergent instead of cocaine, and the three are released. Meike immediately suspects that Salim must have made the switch. She breaks into his apartment with Philip and searches for the cocaine. When Salim comes home, he insists that he has no interest in the drugs. Before Philip can take possession of the cocaine, Meike starts the washing machine in which it is hidden, destroying it all. In the end, Meike and Salim drive off together in the Jeep toward the Sahara.