TV
“The Whistleblower”: Nobody is really honest here
Katharina Nesytova as Galina and Artjom Gilz as Tom in a scene from “The Whistleblower”. photo
© Christoph Assmann/ZDF/dpa
How fragile our system is is shown by the Internet and everything that depends on it. A drama worth seeing on Arte shows what it can mean for a large hospital when it is attacked from outside.
A pair of lovers meet in a small house somewhere in the Swedish archipelago Stockholm: The Russian Galina (Katharina Nesytowa) has returned from Moscow with her little daughter after eight years and gives her ex-boyfriend, the photographer Tom (Artjom Gilz), a note. There is an internet link (“Valuable information from Moscow”) for his sister Friederike (Jennifer Ulrich), who coordinates the crisis team at the Foreign Office.
This involves secret information about a hacker attack on the controls of the Berlin Central Hospital, which has already resulted in the death of one patient. The TV drama “The Whistleblower” describes the attack on a sensitive system like one in a hospital. It can be seen on Friday (11/10, 8:15 p.m.) on Arte and on Monday (11/13, 8:15 p.m.) on ZDF.
Galina claims that she has even more information and also has the saving code that could thwart further attacks. In return, the whistleblower is demanding a lot of money, asylum in Germany and admission to a witness protection program for herself and her daughter.
Fast-paced drama without a break
Director Elmar Fischer (55, “Our Wonderful Years”) has shot a very fast-paced but also somewhat fragmented drama, in which there are many chases and changing locations all the way to Poland. Meanwhile, there are further system failures in German clinics, and some even have to be evacuated. More patients in intensive care units die. Even the attentive viewer can only gradually understand the connections. However, there is no respite because there is almost constant conversation – although not every dialogue is important for understanding the film.
Katharina Nesytowa (38, “The Air We Breathe”) and Artjom Gilz (36, “The Boat”) impressively play a couple who basically don’t dare cross paths with each other. Especially since at some point it turns out that Galina is not the person she claims to be and that Tom is also hiding some things from his past life. Even the State Secretary (Christian Erdmann) who is at the center of the case is playing his own game, which is primarily intended to benefit his career plans.
The overall gripping film is about fake honesty and hurt feelings, about deceit and cover-up – and also about unlived love and evil betrayal. At the bitter end, all that remains are damaged characters who can be happy that they escaped with their lives – whatever awaits them from now on.