Passagier 23 - Verschwunden auf hoher See (2018)

Five years earlier, police psychologist Martin Schwartz lost his son Timmy and his wife, Nadja, during a cruise. Since then, he has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and drunk heavily. After an operation against paedophile criminals, he receives a call from writer Gerlinde Dobkowitz. She is aboard the cruise ship Sirius and is investigating theories about missing passengers. A girl named Anouk, who had been missing for two weeks, has now been found on board. She has Timmy’s teddy bear. Schwartz boards the ship, which is travelling from Southampton to New York City over the course of a week, and tries to solve the case, repeatedly remembering his son. The traumatised Anouk is kept in an isolated room, where the ship’s doctor, Elena Beck, and her assistant, Sheela, look after her. Meanwhile, Anouk’s mother, Naomi Lamar, is being held captive inside the ship. An unknown person uses a notebook to ask her questions, including what the worst thing she has ever done is. Also on board are Lisa Stiller and her mother, Julia. The two women were given the trip by Captain Daniel Bonhoeffer, who is Lisa’s godfather and Elena’s partner. Lisa is bullied over sex videos. She contemplates suicide and jumps overboard one night. Schwartz, who has learned about the circumstances from his hacker friend Diesel, rescues Lisa from the sea. From time to time, flashbacks are shown, such as Martin finding a condom in the bedroom at home when he returns. The police psychologist also questions Anouk several times; she communicates mainly in writing and through pictures. She gives him important clues about her mother. Schwartz goes with Elena Beck to an anchor room, where she climbs into a recess and returns with a painful expression on her face. Eventually, Schwartz finds Naomi in the old rubbish chute, which had been referred to as the “blue shelf.” But he cannot save her when he reaches out to her: after seeing her child standing at the top of the chute, Anouk’s mother falls backwards into the water below, because the hatch in her hiding place has been opened beneath her. On the notebook used to communicate with Naomi, Schwartz finds a video that initially suggests Sheela is solely responsible for the deaths. By reviewing his conversations with Anouk, Schwartz finally realises the truth. Elena was behind the deaths and disappearances. She wants to punish mothers who have sexually abused their daughters. Sheela, who was always near Anouk’s room, helped her. After the cruise, Schwartz tracks Elena down in Mexico. There, speaking to him via a notebook, she explains that she only protected the children and found them new, good homes. Schwartz swears that he never did anything to his son, but admits that he “should have known.” Elena now allows him to see his son Timmy again. Schwartz embraces him and takes him back with him to Berlin.