Eine-Stadt-wird-erpresst

Eine Stadt wird erpresst (A City Held to Ransom)

Midnight, 3rd March 2006. Bomb alert in Leipzig City Hall. Whilst police and
explosives experts busy themselves with the bomb that is supposedly strapped to a
remote control car moving through the building’s nocturnal corridors, the actual attack
happens elsewhere. An electricity pylon explodes and the entire city is thrown into
darkness. A message is found on the mobile phone left in the City Hall by those
responsible: they want 20 million euro in diamonds or there will be more bombs to
come. Superintendent Dietrich Kalinke, a run down policeman with a controversial
East German past, takes on the case. Together with his team he organises the hand
over of the ransom money at two different places, as specified. The attempt to catch
the perpetrators during the hand over fails: they escape through the sewerage
system with one half of the diamonds and a dog disappears in a forest with the other
half. The dog’s tracks lead Kalinke’s team to the small village of Gralwitz, situated on
the edge of a brown coal quarry region. The village appears to be deserted. Most of
the villagers have sold their houses to the mining company, only a few have
remained steadfastly against the state aided sale of their hometown.
The investigation within the conspiratorial village community confronts Kalinke with the
memories of a 20-year-old case in which a girl’s accidental death is covered up
by the Stasi…
Regie: Dominik Graf Buch: Rolf Basedow
Production: Burkert Bareiss Development, Gloria Burkert, Andreas Bareiss, Bernd Burgemeister
Produced by: Caroline von Senden Camera: Axel Fischerkoesen Production Design: Claus Jürgen Pfeiffer
Cast: Uwe Kokisch, Misel Maticevic, Julia Blankenburg

Eine Stadt wird erpresst was awarded the Grimme Prize 2008.