WOLFSBURG Made in Germany

In this chillingly effective morality tale about redemption and one man’s earnest attempt to achieve it solely through good works, Benno Furmann is simply riveting as the deeply flawed Phillip, an unsympathetic cipher falteringly trying to atone for his crime.

Slick, successful, self-absorbed car salesman Phillip leads a perfectly slick, successful, self-absorbed life until the one moment he doesn’t and – while driving and. distracted by his cell phone – he runs over a child and leaves the scene. Clearly conflicted yet incapable of confessing, he seeks absolution by forging a relationship with the child’s mother, a woman who unwittingly becomes entwined with her son’s killer.

A nearly suffocating – and that’s a good thing, thanks to fine photography and production design – suspense film, made all the more so by the burden of knowledge the audience alone bears. With a kicker, didn’t-see-that-coming ending, it’s hard to resist.