“In the abyss”
ARD political thriller about the true price of natural resources
Gerd Meineke (Hans-Jochen Wagner, l) wants to bring his future stepdaughter Leyla (Luna Jordan) back to Germany. photo
© Daniel Harrich/ARD/SWR/diwafilm//dpa
Many people don’t want to know exactly where and how Germany sources important raw materials. A feature film addresses grievances on the outermost edges of Europe.
While the popular European politician Gerd Meineke (Hans-Jochen Wagner) is brought before a court of fools by his Ruhrpott carnivalists and is grinning in a golden cage, his prospective stepdaughter Leyla (Luna Jordan) fares badly. She ended up in prison in her native Azerbaijan as a critic of the regime. “Leyla believes that she can make her country better,” says Meineke’s fiancée Alina (Jasmin Tabatabai) bitterly. “I once believed that too.” But she left the Caucasus state disappointed.
Leyla, on the other hand, returned and, as a blogger, denounces the conditions in the country, which, thanks to its raw materials, is often visited by Western politicians and well-paid pop stars. Alina: “She doesn’t know how brutal this government is.”
Discreet horse trading
While Leyla languishes in custody for an indefinite period of time, Meineke is hoping for help from colleagues on the Council of Europe with contacts in the Caucasus. He turns to his acquaintance Herbert Pfleiderer (Heiner Lauterbach). He immediately comes around the corner with a discreet horse-trading: “I could offer you something about Azerbaijan and human rights.” A “real chance to help her.” Meineke receives an invitation.
He sets off from Recklinghausen to Baku to monitor the presidential election as an election observer and also raise human rights issues. “And I should also address the issue of political prisoners,” says the politician happily. The Azerbaijanis need the Germans more than the other way around, he naively tells his fiancée.
Only gradually does the gullible Meineke realize that those in charge in Baku and lobbyists for influential entrepreneurs are using his delegation to take fancy photos and gain international prestige. Meanwhile, natural resources in the country are obviously being exploited ruthlessly. Leyla and her friend, government employee Valentina (Alina Levshin), open the politician’s eyes to the extent of corruption that does not stop at Western European politics.
ARD theme day “#ourEarth – Fight for Raw Materials”
Director and screenwriter Daniel Harrich has already demonstrated great skill in dealing with explosive material in the past with films such as “Masters of Death – Deadly Exports”. The head of the film and planning department at the responsible Südwestrundfunk, Manfred Hattendorf, says of his new investigative political thriller: “Ingenious entrepreneurs are concerned with representing geopolitical interests by staking out new claims in the fight for critical raw materials. A global race has broken out about the few white spots on the map where the rare earth mining areas have not yet been taken over by China, Russia or the USA.”
Following the drama “Am Abgrund” there will be a documentary of the same name, also by Daniel Harrich, on Erste from 9:45 p.m. on the ARD theme day “#ourEarth – Fight for Raw Materials”. The true background on which the feature film is based is explained there. In addition, a three-part documentary about the global fight for raw materials is now available in the ARD media library – also under the title “Am Abgrund”.