Scorched Earth

Screening at the German Film Festival 2024, Scorched Earth is a belated part two of a proposed trilogy from writer/director, Thomas Arslan. It sees career crim, Trojan (Mišel Matičević) back in Berlin after a decade or so away. Apparently, a botched robbery in 2010s In the Shadows forced him to exile himself for a time, but now pickings are getting slimmer, so back to the capital he goes.

 An opening sequence of watchful professionalism explains the character of Trojan - he's careful and succinct, unflappable even. This is displayed when the broker for his latest burglary tries to do him like a kipper and make off with the stolen watches. Of course, Trojan's having none of this, and quickly gets on top of the situation. Unfortunately, this leaves him with some hot gear and no real way to maximise his profits, hence the Berlin return.

On arrival, he looks up old contacts in an attempt to find work. An offer to steal a Caspar David Friedrich painting is made by Rebecca, middle-woman in a 'business consultancy', and he agrees to go along with it. As this is a crime thriller genre pic, thrills are required and the menace is supplied by the client's hired muscle, Victor (Alexander Fehling). The client himself starts the ball rolling by straight-up refusing to pay the robbers for their job - but he still wants the painting. Rich is as rich does. Trojan and his crew - old mate, Luca (Tim Seyfi), driver Diana (Marie Leuenberger) and IT guy Chris (Bilge Bingül) - must stay ahead of the caper and try to move this painting on, all the while avoiding probable pain, possible death.

The whole cast is suitably grim and moody, though there is one moment of light humanity between Trojan and Diana where they discuss their downtime away from crime. The representation of a lifestyle that must be extremely hard to manage is well explored by everyone - for example, Trojan has no fixed abode, moving from hotel to hotel, and Luca paints a target on his back by letting us know this is his 'one last job' before he straightens up and joins his wife in their restaurant business.

The dourness is reinforced by the fact that most of the action either takes place at night or on overcast days - there's very little brightness in this setting, mirroring the path these people have taken. It's a solid, if unspectacular crime drama, well directed and performed with just the right amount of cool.

Scorched Earth is screening at the HSBC German Film Festival at Luna and Palace cinemas until June 5.

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I'm keen on seeing Arslan's earlier film with Mišel Matičević as Trojan to flesh out this story more - In the Shadows (2010). This might be a long bow to draw but some bits of this felt similar to the Coens' No Country for Old Men (2007).