Scorched Earth

Thomas Arslan's 2024 German film continues from Im Schatten of 2010. The professional criminal Trojan returns to Berlin twelve years later; after a job that failed he is looking for work and cannot refuse an offer to steal a painting from a museum. Arslan drains the genre almost completely. There is little dialogue, almost no music, and no account of the characters' pasts. The preparation for the theft is shown step by step, close to real time; the tension comes not from surprise but from the precision of the procedure. Misel Maticevic returns in the same role and explains the character not at all. Berlin here is not a familiar city: empty car parks, roadsides, industrial areas at night. The film screened at the Berlinale. Who it's for: those who like dry, minimalist crime films. Who it's not for: viewers looking for character depth and emotional attachment; the film withholds both deliberately.