Jordan Scott, the daughter of Ridley Scott, adapted Nicholas Hoggs’ novel “Tokyo“ and transplanted it to Berlin. University professor Ben is working on a book about the ideology of apocalyptic cults here. At the same time, ritual suicides are occurring again and again in the Berlin area, which have some things in common: the dead have a shell in their mouth and a mark made of ash on their face. When Ben gets the opportunity to be part of the investigation through Nina, the investigator in charge at the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, he is thrilled and neglects his teenage daughter Mazzy, who is visiting from the US. Totally on her own, she meets Martin – and through him she falls into the clutches of a group of environmental activists that turn out to be a cult led by Sophie Rois.

The speculative mixture of thriller, mystery, and Berlin film sounds quite entertaining, but suffers from an incredibly heavy-handed screenplay. Occasional charming expat dialogues alternate with completely unbelievable scenes in which the hardened investigator Nina seduces the largely personality-less Ben with a mixture of cynicism, sensitivity, and sex appeal. While the majority of the film is reminiscent of a Tatort episode in its execution - slightly gray realism paired with screen-compatible simple settings - echoes of Fassbinderian madness flash through in the wooden cult scenes with Sophie Rois. The ideological foundation is just as vague: the film isn’t really interested in how this environmental apocalyptic meditation cult actually works, what that has to do with Ben’s research, or Mazzy’s coming-of-age problems. It’s new age and evil for some reason. Accordingly, their actions seem pointless and there is no tension.

Hendrike Bake

Translation: Elinor Lewy