Zu neuen Ufern (2022)

Drug dealer Karel, known as the Sicilian, is arrested by police officer Stani and his girlfriend, the young police officer Johanna, during a police raid at an unauthorized music event in the border region between the Czech Republic and the Mühlviertel. Karel and Stani went to school together. Karel manages to escape, and Johanna takes the blame. Soon afterward, Stani finds her dead in a nearby quarry. Grete Öller, a now-retired detective from the Linz State Criminal Police Office, is visited by her former colleague Lisa Nemeth, who tells her that her godchild Johanna—whom Grete called Hanni—has died. Grete was Johanna’s role model and the reason Johanna had also joined the police. Grete blames herself because she had advised Johanna to become a police officer. Stani also blames himself for not keeping a close enough eye on Johanna, who was just starting out in the job. According to police officer Hans Eder, who was also at the raid, it was an accident: Johanna supposedly fell into the quarry in the dark. Stani later turns up at Grete’s home and gives her the case files. The Sicilian has since died of a heroin overdose. According to Stani, however, he had not used drugs himself; he had only sold crystal meth and was afraid of needles. He was also left-handed, yet the needle mark was on his left arm. Stani suspects the drug dealer saw something that got him killed. He wants to find out what really happened and why Johanna died, and asks Grete for help. At first, however, she refuses, saying that as a retired police officer she has no authority to investigate. But the case continues to haunt her. She visits Stani in the Czech Republic, but he does not want anyone there to know who she is because he does not know whom he can trust. Grete and Stani go to the quarry where Johanna died. There, Stani tells Grete that the Sicilian escaped while Stani had pulled Johanna into the bushes to kiss her. Dutifully, she had put him off until later, but when she returned to the police van, the Sicilian had already disappeared. Since he had been chained up in the van, someone must have freed him. The Sicilian was found at his grandmother’s house, where he had been hiding from the police. When he was in school, Karel had made crystal meth himself using ephedrine from cough syrup and lithium from batteries. According to his grandmother, Karel wanted to emigrate to New Zealand and had already obtained a visa. The investigation was led by Marek Stastny, who had also been at the police raid. A computer is missing from the list of evidence; according to Karel’s grandmother, it was supposed to contain the visa. But a police officer had taken the computer. Both the seized computer and the crystal meth are missing from the evidence room. Stani suspects Marek and wants to keep him under surveillance. To track him, he sticks a smartphone to Marek’s car. Marek drives to a casino. According to the waitress there, Marek is a regular, although he stopped coming for a while, possibly because he had run out of money. Perhaps that was why he took Karel’s crystal meth from the police operation. Grete suggests that Stani confront his superior, Jaromir “Jarda” Kralik, with what they have found out so far. Stani distrusts Jarda, however, because he is friends with Marek. Grete returns to Austria and asks Hans Eder for help; he says he will inform Jarda. Later, Grete discovers that Eder never spoke to Jarda. She also finds Marek Stastny shot dead in his apartment, and is temporarily detained by the Czech police. After some difficulty, Lisa Nemeth comes to collect her on the instructions of her superior in Budweis. Stani is suspected of murdering Marek. Eventually, Karel’s seized computer is found at Hans Eder’s home. He needed the money from selling the crystal meth to pay for the care of his seriously ill wife, Elfriede. Johanna had caught her colleague Hans stealing the drugs, and during a subsequent argument he had made her fall into the chasm at the quarry. A video on the Sicilian’s computer shows Hans and Johanna at the quarry. Hans Eder had let the Sicilian out of the police van because he was Eder’s dealer. The Sicilian had been blackmailing Hans with the video. Hans was also being blackmailed by Marek, who wanted 10,000 euros from him. With Stani and Grete’s investigation progressing, Hans had eventually killed Marek as well. Elfriede, who was in the next room, finally shoots her husband Hans and then herself.