"It lingers, unsettles, and asks an uncomfortable question"

Premiered at the Berlinale and awarded this year’s Panorama Audience Award, Prosecution (Staatsschutz) by Faraz Shariat is one of those films that refuses to stay comfortably on screen. It lingers, unsettles, and asks an uncomfortable question: what remains of justice when the system no longer protects those it claims to serve?

The audience award comes as no surprise. Shariat delivers a tense, lucid and deeply political work, capable of engaging without ever simplifying. A film that provokes, invites reflection and, above all, leaves behind a lingering anger that is hard to shake off.

Set in Germany, Prosecution follows a young lawyer dealing with a racially motivated act of violence that implicates state institutions, law enforcement and far-right environments. The narrative moves between courtrooms, parallel investigations and an increasingly personal dimension, where the boundary between professional ethics and individual survival becomes dangerously thin.

Shariat deliberately avoids the reassuring conventions of classic legal dramas. There is no illusion here that truth alone is enough to restore balance. Instead, the film exposes the cracks, the omissions and the compromises that allow power structures to remain intact even when they are clearly complicit.

The strength of the film lies in its protagonist: a woman who refuses to be confined either to the role of victim or to that of an irreproachable heroine. Alongside the legal path, we witness a growing personal, physical, emotional and psychological commitment. She prepares herself, investigates, makes decisions that are not always “correct”, but feel necessary in order to survive within a system that constantly places her at risk.

What I found most interesting is how the film handles the idea of justice. Nothing feels clear-cut or reassuring. As the story unfolds, the sense that things might not fall neatly into place becomes part of the experience.

There is a constant tension around the possibility of revenge, almost frustrating at times, forcing the viewer to sit with that feeling rather than release it.

At a time when racism is actively fuelled by political agendas and when old and new forms of fascism are re-emerging in public discourse, Prosecution feels painfully relevant. It offers no solutions, no closure, no emotional relief, and that is precisely why it works.

It is a film that makes you long for a sequel, not because the story feels incomplete, but because the reality it depicts is far from resolved. It portrays an imperfect justice system and a form of resistance that is restrained, quiet and deeply human.

A solid, intelligent and unsettling work. Beautifully made.
And above all, a film that stays with you.