Wolfswinkel (2023)

Melanie Kosse is a police officer working in her native Brandenburg, where, amid the rural scenery, she usually deals with minor offenses such as bicycle theft or illegally dumped rubbish by the lake. The idyll is shattered when a paved road once built by forced laborers is torn up. Anja Raabe, an elementary-school teacher, campaigns for a memorial to be erected there. Then Lydia John, once a sought-after actress, returns. Now an influencer, she appeals to young people and promotes local pride with patriotic slogans (“Take back your homeland!”), hardening divisions within the village community. Anja believes Lydia is riding the “brown wave.” Melanie suddenly finds herself caught between her childhood friends Anja and Lydia. But Melanie has other worries just now. She is having an affair with Karol, a married Polish man, and discovers that she is pregnant. At first, she does not want to have the baby, but later decides to go ahead with the pregnancy. Meanwhile, provocations in the village escalate. A memorial plaque Anja puts up for the forced laborers is defaced; Lydia has a memorial stone erected for German soldiers who fell in battle. Anja later paints it in bright colors with the children from her elementary-school class, and the rival groups get into a physical altercation. While Anja is collecting signatures against the memorial stone, she is abducted one evening and tied to a tree, where she is not found until the next morning. Melanie’s male colleagues initially show little interest in pursuing the incident and would rather cover it up. Melanie takes responsibility, investigates, and finds what she is looking for among Lydia’s circle; the former friends exchange heated words. Shortly after the culprit is arrested, one of Lydia’s followers forces Melanie and her motorcycle off the road with her car. A little later, a festival celebrating local identity, organized by Lydia, takes place in the village. But not everyone attends. The pregnant Melanie goes with Anja and Marta, the village elder, to the memorial plaque for the forced laborers, where the three lay down a bouquet of flowers.