Wir waren Könige (2014)

During a raid by a special operations unit (SEK), things get out of control. Two criminals are shot dead, a third manages to escape, and one of the SEK officers is taken to hospital with serious injuries. The already high level of frustration rises further. When two more colleagues from the unit are found dead shortly afterward, the group plots revenge. In parallel, the story follows a youth gang scraping by in the neighboring district. Thorsten, who sees himself as a kind of leader, is admired by a young boy named Nasim, who desperately wants to belong but is bullied by everyone. One night, Nasim finds the service weapon of one of the murdered SEK officers and plants it on Ioannis, Thorsten’s best friend. This sets off a fatal chain of violence, as the SEK unit led by Mendes now believes it has found its culprit. During the ensuing chase, Ioannis is badly beaten and falls into a raging river. Mendes’s unit wants to cover up what happened, but not only the patrol officers—some SEK members too, above all Kevin—rebel. They begin to realize they have caught the wrong person. As tensions within the police force continue to mount, Thorsten and his friends frantically search for Ioannis. Like the SEK, they quickly decide that another gang from the district must be to blame. Meanwhile, with the help of patrol officer Nadine, Kevin discovers that disputes and illegal dealings with the bouncer scene were actually behind the deaths of the two SEK officers. But the situation seems hopeless: everyone only wants to save their own skin and forget the whole thing. Mendes in particular fears for the unity of his unit when Ioannis suddenly reappears. The police hide Ioannis from the SEK to protect him, but Mendes finds and murders him; the crime is then covered up. Nadine, a witness to the murder, is transferred to the SEK as a reward for keeping quiet. Thorsten’s youth gang tortures Jacek to find out where Ioannis is. Nasim murders Jacek in order to win Thorsten’s friendship. Kevin leaves the force.