★★★★★
Trust in institutions is at a tipping point. You feel it in the opinion polls. You see it in the weekly protests on the inner-city marble steps. Prosecution (Staatsschutz) is a contemporaneous reflection on our tearing social fabric.
Directed by Faraz Shariat and winner of the Audience Award at the 2026 Berlinale, Prosecution is framed as a legal thriller. It moves like one, too. But underneath, it’s something more confronting. It’s a study of how systems that promise objectivity can quietly fracture.
The premise is tight. A young prosecutor, Seyo Kim, takes on far-right violence in eastern Germany. Then she becomes a target herself. What follows is what happens when belief in the system starts to crack.
For audiences used to adversarial courtroom dramas, the film’s exploration of Germany’s inquisitorial system is a shift. Judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers operate differently. The structure feels less combative, more procedural.
Yet the same pressures creep in. Backlogs of files. Decisions about what gets prioritised. The subtle, and not-so-subtle, presence of bias. The myth of neutrality starts to erode. Characters proclaim their system is the most objective in the world. Is this reality, or nationalistic hubris?
At the centre is Chen Emilie Yan as Seyo Kim. It’s a compelling performance. She begins almost contained. A prosecutor who believes in the rule of law. In honour of hard work. On individual responsibility being enough to survive or thrive in any system.
An attack changes all that. Beliefs get set alight. You can only ignore the dissonance for so long; eventually, you need to scream and break things.
Her trajectory echoes works like Suzie Miller’s Prima Facie. A believer in the system becomes a victim of it. The real damage is both physical and moral. What happens when your workplace asks you to ignore what you know is wrong? Do you stay? Do you leave? Or do you push back and risk everything?
Yan is supported by a strong ensemble of Julia Jentsch, Alexandra Tiedemann, Alev Irmak, Ayten Alican, Arnd Klawitter and Sebastian Urzendowsky. This is a work where the hero and villains shine, as they must, while the rest blend into the background of the courtroom sketch.
The film doesn’t shy away from the broader context. Far-right ideology is not presented as fringe. It exists in chat groups. In nostalgia for past regimes. In coded language.
Some of it is obvious. Skinheads and head tattoos. Some of it is not. It sits in offices, in paperwork. In decisions that never get questioned. That second layer is where the film is most unsettling. It’s a reminder that extremism rarely operates in isolation on the fringes. It embeds.
Visually, the film is precise. Cinematographer Lotta Kilian captures both the micro and the macro. The small moments matter. A look in a corridor. A pause in a meeting. The accumulation of microaggressions.
Then the larger world intrudes. Surveillance. Violence. Institutional weight. Editor Friederike Hohmuth keeps the pace tight. There are no long courtroom delays here, the narrative moves with urgency.
What stands out is how current it feels. Germany is still reflecting on how the past happened. At the same time, the seeds of something similar are visible again. The fear of being stopped. Asked for papers. Watched. For some, that fear has never gone away. The film doesn’t pretend this is new; it suggests it has always been close.
There are moments where the genre edges feel familiar. Vigilante lawyers are having a moment. Fans of shows like The Lincoln Lawyer will recognise the rhythm. But Prosecution grounds that energy in something heavier. The stakes are not just winning a case. They are about whether the system can be trusted at all.
Ultimately, Prosecution is not interested in an easy resolution. It asks harder questions. What do you do when the system you serve stops serving justice? How far are you willing to go? And what does it cost?
It is a question, increasingly, we are having to answer in our daily lives, not just during our trips to the cinema.
Prosecution is screening now around Australia as part of the 2026 HSBC German Film Festival.
Tickets to Prosecution are available here.
Website: https://germanfilmfestival.com.au/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/germanfilmfestival/
No trailer is currently available.
Film details:
Title: Prosecution (Staatsschutz )
Director: Faraz Shariat
Cast: Chen Emilie Yan, Julia Jentsch, Alev Irmak, Arnd Klawitter, Sebastian Urzendowsky
Country of Origin: Germany
Duration: 113 mins
Rating: CTC
2026 German Film Festival Dates and Venues by City:
Sydney: 6 – 27 May, Palace Norton Street, Palace Central, Palace Moore Park
Canberra: 6 – 27 May, Palace Electric
Brisbane: 6 – 27 May, Palace James St, Palace Barracks
Adelaide: 6 – 27 May, Palace Nova Eastend Cinemas, Palace Nova Prospect Cinemas
Perth: 7 – 27 May, Luna Leederville, Luna on SX & Palace Raine Square
Byron Bay and Ballina: 7 – 27 May, Palace Byron Bay, Ballina Fair Cinemas
Melbourne: 8 – 27 May, Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Church St, Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth, The Kino, The Astor Theatre, Pentridge Cinema, Palace Penny Lane
Ballarat: 8 – 27 May, Palace Regent Ballarat
