Totgeschwiegen (2019)

At Innsbrucker Platz subway station in Berlin, a verbal argument turns physical between three intoxicated teenagers and a homeless man after he urinates in a trash can. The homeless man dies. The teenagers run away; they are seen from behind on a surveillance video. The teenagers’ parents—Mira’s, Jakob’s, and Fabian’s—learn about the incident more or less by chance and must decide together, at a clandestine meeting, how to handle the situation. Brigitte, Volker, and their son Fabian: The family lives in a large, modern house. Brigitte is a homemaker, and Volker is a patent attorney. Brigitte is the first to figure out what may have happened that evening. When she sees the video footage on the news that night and Fabian’s brother teases him, saying it could just as easily be his jacket, it dawns on her. She has just found Fabian’s bloodstained jacket in the trash and washed it. Now she takes action: she cuts up the jacket and, after a jog, disposes of it in a trash bin in a housing estate. When she gets back, Mira’s mother Esther is talking to Volker; they want to discuss the incident the next day. Esther, Jean, and their daughter Mira: Esther is a gynecologist and lives with her partner Jean in an apartment in an older building. Jean usually cooks and often looks after Mira because of Esther’s work. Esther learns about the incident through a chat on Mira’s phone. She and Jean confront Mira immediately. Mira says it was self-defense, that the man fell and hit his head, and that they all ran off in a state of shock afterward. Esther then goes to Fabian’s parents to talk to them about it. Nele and her son Jakob: Nele is a single mother of two children and works in a café. They live in a housing estate. The other parents tell her about the incident the next day, at a remote snack bar. The adults have different ideas about what to do. Brigitte and Volker would like to keep what happened quiet; after all, it was an accident. They fear their son would not be able to cope with prison and that the children would ruin their entire future. Esther and Jean see turning themselves in as the only solution. But they fear the children will not be able to withstand the psychological pressure in the long run and that it will catch up with them eventually. Volker counters Esther and Jean’s concern that they would all become accomplices by saying that, as relatives, they would be exempt from punishment under Section 258(6) of the German Criminal Code. The prospect of juvenile detention makes Esther change her mind. The parents initially decide not to go to the police. Jean disagrees with this decision and moves out of their shared apartment. Since he is Mira’s stepfather and Esther works a lot, this takes a further toll on Mira. When the police announce that the homeless man was stabbed to death, everyone involved sits down together. Each of the teenagers says that he or she did it. Those affected deal with what happened in their own ways. Esther, for example, tries to encourage Mira to take some social responsibility and arranges volunteer work for her at a nursing home. After Mira runs away from there, Esther sends her for psychological treatment. Jakob finds the homeless man’s dog on the street and takes it to an animal shelter. Brigitte and Volker send Fabian to boarding school. Nele, meanwhile, tries to find out more about the homeless man and what kind of person he was. She even goes to his ex-wife in Karlshorst, but during their conversation she does not reveal who she is and only asks for directions. She comes close to giving a statement to the police, but changes her mind after waiting too long at the station for someone in charge. The teenagers try to escape reality with joints, alcohol, and loud music. When Mira attempts suicide with sleeping pills and alcohol, Jakob breaks his silence and tells the truth. That evening, they had drunk two bottles of wine and got into an argument at the subway station with the heavily intoxicated homeless man, which turned physical. The homeless man’s dog bit Jakob on the leg, and Fabian pulled out a knife. In the scuffle, the knife fell to the ground; Mira then picked it up and stabbed the homeless man once. Three months later, the sentence is handed down: Mira receives a two-year suspended sentence in juvenile detention and must undergo psychological treatment. Jakob and Fabian receive a judicial warning; because he carried a knife, Fabian must attend an anti-violence course. Each of them must complete 100 hours of community service.