REVIEW: VERBRANNTE ERDE / SCORCHED EARTH 2024 A WELCOME RETURN TO THE GENRE

 With news hitting us about the soon-to-be-filmed new DR. MABUSE series, we decided to take a look at the state of the krimi cinema in Germany. So this one here comes up. 

We do like this move here. Very much. Because it keeps things simple and there are zero distractions in the flow of the story:

VERBRANNTE ERDE is about Trojan, a master cat burglar who is completely paranoid, stoic, and never sleeps in the same bed twice. And moving from one hotel to the next, he always puts his bulletproof vest on. Paranoid, I told you. And yes, he reads architectural magazines in his free time to find out how the rich live. We get it. This man is 100% business

His luck has run dry, as there was no payoff from his last job that included 10 Rolex watches. He reconnects with an agent for criminal jobs, and indeed, right now, something is cooking:

A painting of Caspar David Friedrich is to be stolen from a Museum's depot, four specialists are needed: One tech-wizard to manipulate surveillance, one getaway-girl driver and two to actually go in and get the object. 

Things go as planned, but their client does not intend to pay. Instead, he sends out a hitman to trace them and kill them, which he does for money AND enjoyment. 

With the exception of a minor subplot of the gang trying to sell the painting back to the museum and a very slight hint at a romance between Trojan and the driver, this is the full story. 

But it is directed with precision and the movie feels as bare-boned, stripped of every redundant part, as the plot is, as the characters are and as they behave. If you liked "Drive" you will very much like this. Obviously MWRefn was a huge influence on director Thomas Arslan, or at least they share the same vision: Long, static shots with completely toned-down characters and plots that burst into violence. The only problem I have with this move is its miniscule budget. Arslan does his best to cover this up but here and there it shows (like the very threadbare music). Direction and performances are outstanding.

This could be a great Spaghetti Western (just when you find out that director Arslan actually had made the movie "Gold" which is one of the rare German Westerns of the 2000s).

It is the second installment of a projected trilogy about Trojan but actually the third film the director made about the Berlin gang (Dealer 1999 and Im Schatten 2010).  The movie has received universal critical praise and was voted best German movie in 2024 by the German Film Critics Society. 

If you like a totally unapologetic crime movie, old-school-style with crisp direction, no fuss and tough-as-nails characters, you should give this one a try.

Are we happy? Yeah, we happy.....

TRAILER, switch on subtitles and automatic translation into engish....