Ummah - Unter Freunden (2013)
No stats available
Directors
Cast
Frederick Lau, Eray Egilmez, Mona Pirzad, Kida Ramadan, Dirk Talága, Burak Yiğit
A disillusioned undercover operative tries to build a new life in a Berlin Muslim community, but his former employers demand he betray his new friends.
The story
After five years working undercover for Brandenburg’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Daniel Klemm wants out following a disastrous operation that leaves him wounded. Instead, he is placed on leave and moved into a shabby apartment in Berlin-Neukölln. He initially keeps his distance from his neighbors, including Dina, an Afghan woman, but gradually forms a bond with Abbas and Jamal, owners of a used-electronics shop whose warmth draws him into their community. Daniel struggles to fit in, and his past remains visible in a neo-Nazi tattoo. As his relationship with Dina grows, his former boss returns with a demand that puts Daniel’s new friendships at risk.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Daniel Klemm has worked as an undercover operative for the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution for five years. After a botched and controversial operation in the neo-Nazi scene in Reinhardtsdorf-Schöna, Saxony, in which two skinheads are killed and Daniel is wounded by a shot to the abdomen, he wants to leave the job, but is initially only placed on leave for three months. He is also provided with a run-down apartment on Baderstraße in Berlin-Neukölln (Zone R4). At first, he shuts himself off from his new surroundings and brushes off his neighbor Dina, an Afghan woman, when she brings him cookies as a welcome gift. While trying to buy a television in his new neighborhood, he meets Abbas and Jamal, who own a used-electronics shop. Their helpfulness gradually draws him into their community (ummah, Arabic for community, also: the community of Muslims). Daniel has some trouble being accepted by everyone in the community. For example, he brings a bottle of sparkling wine as a gift to an Arab wedding, and his neo-Nazi tattoo on the back of his neck (a Black Sun) is, among other things, a persistent thorn in Jamal’s side for a time. However, he earns the community’s respect by spray-painting over an underwear advertisement on a billboard opposite a kindergarten, covering it with a burka. A romantic relationship begins to develop between him and Dina. At some point, Daniel’s boss at the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Mr. Hartmann, gets back in touch and demands that Daniel look for evidence against his new friends so they can be exposed as potential terrorists. The Office has fallen into disrepute following a corruption scandal and needs a success story, which it hopes to achieve by arresting Abbas and the others. Otherwise, Daniel is to be replaced. He refuses, and after he is threatened with arrest and his friends are arrested, he goes public with information about the Office’s internal affairs. He is arrested during the television interview, while Abbas waits in vain for his friend to return. The film ends with a scene showing Daniel, Abbas, and Jamal playing boules in the park, while a news announcement in voice-over reports Daniel’s death in a car accident.
Genres
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…