Germany in the not-too-distant future: The borders are closed, refugees are collected in camps and turned away or accepted. The mood is charged, a police detachment is responsible for keeping the crowd in check. Volt is one of the cops. He accidentally kills a French refugee. The violence spirals out of control. Volt starts up a relationship with the sister of the man he killed and winds up between the fronts.
Acting
Fürmann's haunted stillness carries the whole film.
Cinematography
Cramped 4:3 ratio traps you in Volt's guilt.
Direction
Ehlail's debut punches way above its weight.
Director
Tarek Ehlail
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Ehlail shot this for under €500k, using real Berlin locations to make the near-future feel uncomfortably present. The refugee camps were based on actual EU border facilities being constructed in 2015-16.
Released months after Germany's 2015 refugee crisis peaked, Volt sparked walkouts at festivals — critics called it 'exploitative,' defenders called it 'prescient.' The debate aged strangely well.
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