Operation Zucker (2012)

Fee, a ten-year-old girl, is taken from her home village in Romania to Germany, supposedly to receive a good education there. Instead, she is sold to a Berlin child trafficker and eventually ends up in a children’s brothel disguised as a singles’ club. Police officers Wegemann and Hansen have been watching the “club” for a while and see, among others, a well-known politician arrive there. Wegemann contacts the prosecutor in charge, Dorothee Lessing, who initially pays little attention to the case and is also completely overworked. The policewoman withholds the information that Lessing’s longtime close friend, Judge Hans Neidhard, also appears to be involved in the case. Unaware that Lessing has specifically asked this judge for a search warrant, Wegemann carries out a raid on the “club” with her colleagues. But the people behind the operation apparently knew about the plan and were able to move the children before the police arrived. Only little Fee managed to hide, but she is utterly distraught. When the prosecutor learns of the suspicions against Neidhart after the botched raid on the “club,” she finds it extremely hard to believe that the man whose friendship has always meant so much to her could be involved. She takes it personally that Wegemann withheld this information, but at the same time understands the seriousness of the situation. Shocked by her friend’s double life, and by the children’s situation as well, she now supports the young policewoman with all her strength. With help from an informant, the police learn of an apartment where the children are supposed to be staying. They storm it and manage to bring several children to safety, including Bran, who was brought to Germany from Romania along with Fee. When Bran recognizes the politician mentioned earlier, Kurt Wagner, the senior prosecutor refuses to believe him, so the boy runs away and some time later stabs Wagner to death in his house. Bran, who had gone to Hansen to find out what had happened to Fee, cannot persuade the girl to leave with him and eventually ends up working the streets. Fee is placed in the prosecutor’s holiday home, where Wegemann protects her, while Hansen and Lessing—again with the informant’s help—learn of a villa where the children are to be forced into sexual acts. Shortly before the planned raid, the special task force receives orders not to intervene, whereupon Hansen and Lessing decide to storm the villa on their own. Hansen calls for backup and gives Lessing a gun. The two enter the house and find several men and children who are already half-naked. They get the children to safety and are about to arrest the men when Lessing recognizes Judge Neidhart. She points the gun at him, but he manages to take it from her and now threatens her with it. At that moment, backup arrives, and the judge realizes there is no way out. He tries to shoot himself with the gun, but it is not loaded. The judge and the other men are taken into police custody. In the edited version, the film ends with the men being arrested, Fee safe at the summer house with the policewoman, whom she has since befriended, and Bran going to work the streets. The original version ends with the girl’s “buyer” finding her at the summer house and managing to take her under his control again.