Winterherz - Tod in einer kalten Nacht (2018)

Mike Gattnar, a police officer, goes to a nightclub with his 17-year-old brother Finn, where a bachelor party is in full swing and plenty of alcohol is being consumed. He leaves the party early with Valerie, his childhood crush, but first gives Finn money so he can take a taxi home. He smiles and brushes aside his underage brother’s request to stay a little longer. Completely drunk, Finn walks through the cold, driving snow in the middle of the night and is hit by a white vehicle. At the wheel is Maxim Vollert, who has just been appointed a probationary judge and had celebrated the news with his wife, Sylvie, at his parents’ home. Alcohol was also served with dinner. While Sylvie is worried and wants to take Finn to the hospital, Maxim, concerned about his career, decides to drop Finn off at a bus stop on his way home, where Finn can catch the next bus. Finn has no visible injuries. The next morning, the young man is found at the bus stop, apparently frozen to death. Finn’s mother collapses when she hears that her son has died. His brother Mike is consumed by guilt for leaving him alone. It also weighs heavily on Mike that Finn tried to reach him on his cell phone one last time before he died. He can hardly bear his parents’ shock and despair, either, or his mother’s words that he had promised to look after Finn. The doctor who performed the autopsy tells the family that Finn died from internal bleeding, so he did not freeze to death. Mike wonders how Finn could have ended up at the bus stop, since it lies in exactly the opposite direction from where he should have been going. After the funeral, Mike meets Sylvie Vollert at his brother’s grave. She is tormented by guilt, and her behavior seems strange to him. She drives a white car, like the one witness Baumgart saw on the road Finn was walking along that night. Mike manages to strike up a conversation with Sylvie. Instinctively, he senses that she knows more about his brother than she is willing to admit. In their shared distress, they begin an affair. Then chance gives Mike a clue: at Sylvie’s apartment, he sees a photograph of her wearing the necklace he found at the bus stop where Finn had been dropped off. Maxim Vollert gives his wife a hard time when the Gattnars report him, but he is firmly determined to deny all responsibility, since nothing can be proved against him. On the contrary, he threatens to file a complaint against the Gattnars for slander and to seek an injunction. Even Mike’s words asking whether he has not already done enough harm to his family have no effect on him. Sylvie does admit to Mike that her husband hit Finn, but she is unwilling to testify against him. After his mother collapses during her concert, Mike grabs Maxim Vollert, beats him, and takes him to an isolated little house, where he chains him up. He then tells his parents about Finn’s last call and the guilt he carries for not answering his phone, even though he could have guessed it was Finn. There is nothing they can do, because whatever they did, it would not bring Finn back to life. Mike then goes with Sylvie to Maxim and frees him. When Maxim threatens to report him for attempted murder, Sylvie tells her husband in a firm voice that he will not do that, because she will testify that she was with Mike the whole time. Mike and Sylvie part without a word. The Vollerts drive away, while Mike drives to the bus shelter, sits down on the bench, and gazes into the distance.