PROSECUTION (STAATSSCHUTZ) Discovery

PROSECUTION (STAATSSCHUTZ)

USA Premiere

Following his lyrical award-winning debut NO HARD FEELINGS, German-Iranian filmmaker Faraz Shariat returns to the realm of radically queer and post-migrant cinema with this propulsive, gritty procedural. In a modest East German neighborhood, we follow German Korean state prosecutor Seyo Kim (newcomer Chen Emilie Yan in a star-making turn), who is serving her workplace probation period and eager to prove herself. Her ambition soon gives way to frustration at the German judicial system — which ostensibly prides itself in neutrality and objectivity — when her department reflects a low success rate of hate crime prosecutions, while her day-to-day duty includes defending right-wing extremists who brazenly show off their neo-Nazi insignias. When Seyo herself becomes the target of a Molotov cocktail racist attack, her rogue investigation draws her into the ever growing, malevolent web of underground far-right extremist networks, challenging both her belief in the legal system and her personal integrity. Outfitted with a slick, jet black Dodge Challenger, Chen embodies the vigilante heroine with a magnetic, relentless drive and defiance that heralds the arrival of a new feminist icon. Rejecting conventions of the polemic, with an atmospheric score by Icelandic pianist Gabríel Ólafs, Shariat composes a genre-defying, high-octane procedural thriller that is at once keenly politically-charged and deliciously entertaining in its sleek, immersive handling of tone. Recipient of the Panorama Audience Award at this year’s Berlinale, PROSECUTION is a furious, unapologetic indictment of Germany’s concession to neo-fascism and the complicity of centrist ideology in the face of a disturbing rise in far-right movements. –Anna Li

Faraz Shariat is a German-Iranian filmmaker, whose mold-breaking coming-of-age feature debut NO HARD FEELINGS premiered to great reception at Berlinale 2020, receiving second place for the Panorama Audience Award and the Teddy Award for Best Feature. Faraz Shariat is a fellow of Villa Aurora in Los Angeles and is currently developing his English-language debut THE BEACH BOY, together with Ottessa Moshfegh.

Natalia Dąbrowska
New Europe Film Sales
natalia@neweuropefilmsales.com

MEMBERS & PASSHOLDERS

Screenings

October 23, 9:30 p.m.

Chinese 4

Details

Country: Germany

Year: 2026

Director: Faraz Shariat

Screenwriters: Faraz Shariat, Claudia Schaefer

Producers: Jorgo Narjes, Faraz Shariat

Director of Photography: Lotta Kilian

Editor: Friederike Hohmuth

Production Designer: Dario Mendez Acosta

Costume Designer: Tabassom Charaf

Music: Gabríel Ólafs

Cast/Featuring: Chen Emilie Yan, Julia Jentsch, Alev Irmak, Arnd Klawitter, Sebastian Urzendowsky

Running Time (minutes): 113

Languages: German, Korean

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