Political thriller “Am Abgrund” on ARD: How Azerbaijan is poisoning the EU from within

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Scene from “Am Abgrund” with Sebastian Bezzel and Gerd Meineke

Photo: Maria Wiesler / SWR / ARD

If something is politically wrong or socially uncertain, sooner or later - rather later - it will become an issue in the “crime scene”.

At Daniel Harrich you get both from a single source.

As an investigative reporter, he uncovers scandals, which he turns into exciting television as a director.

This is what he did with the Oktoberfest attack (“The Blind Spot”), German arms exports (“Master of Death”) and machinations of the pharmaceutical industry (“Poison”).

And so it is with his latest prank.

“On the Abyss” tells of the money that the resource-rich ex-Soviet republic of Azerbaijan is using to poison the EU institutions from within.

As a member of the Council of Europe, the bizarre autocracy on the Caspian Sea is integrated into European structures.

Officially, to strengthen local democracy.

In fact, to give Europe access to the oil, gas or lithium that it needs for the “Green Deal”.

Gerd Meineke (Hans-Jochen Wagner, “Tatort” inspector Friedemann Berg) from Recklinghausen is a member of the parliamentary assembly in the Council of Europe and is newly in love with Alina (Jasmin Tabatabai), whose daughter Leyla (Luna Jordan) has been imprisoned in Baku because of her progressive blogging is.

A colleague in the Council of Europe (Heiner Lauterbach) enables Meineke to travel to Azerbaijan as an election observer - and thus free Leyla and other political prisoners.

Clique around the ruling mustache

The venture is indeed successful.

But it dawns on Meineke in Baku which gears he's caught between.

He understands how ruthlessly the clique around the ruling mustache destroys the environment and local residents in order to extract raw materials for supposedly environmentally friendly electric mobility.

And he witnesses how his colleagues allow themselves to be harnessed to the cart of the local rulers with gold pens, suitcases full of money and prostitutes.

Which, of course, is also in the interest of the German and therefore European industry (represented by “Tatort” Commissioner Axel Milberg).

This “caviar diplomacy” not only existed, it still exists.

The list of politicians bribed by Azerbaijan is long; CDU MP Karin Strenz has achieved embarrassing prominence in this country.

Their death on the flight home from a private stay in Cuba also made it into the script, as did a failed vote in the Council of Europe to condemn the human rights situation in Azerbaijan.

Meineke has no chance against the phalanx of venal representatives.

With the help of a journalist (Janina Hartwig), he allows the network to be exposed - with explosive consequences.

“This feature film was developed on the basis of current research,” it says at the beginning: “However, it is not a documentary and does not claim to reproduce events authentically.”

As a director, Harrich tries not to make his characters, who are based on real actors, appear like cardboard cutouts.

Even if some of the twists seem a little forced, “Am Abgrund” is a solid and exciting thriller.

The film's real appeal comes from the fact that it is just the tip of an iceberg of research.

Three-part documentation

The crime thriller serves as an appetizer for the three-part documentary of the same name, with which Harrich rounds off his theme day.

What is only hinted at in fiction, Harrich follows here like hyperlinks to reality.

In Chile, he and his team are researching the conditions under which important raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and copper are mined - for the transition to e-mobility, for the hunger of German industry, and for the future of the location in general.

And these three half-hour documentaries certainly claim to portray events authentically.

As depressing as these glimpses behind the scenes of capitalism are, the location of its premiere was equally pleasing.

“Am Abgrund” was premiered in the German Bundestag – and not without reason.

The demonstration was, so to speak, part of the framework program of a planned change to Section 108f in the Criminal Code: “Anyone who demands, accepts a promise or assumes, an unjustified financial advantage for himself or a third party in return for it, that during his mandate he will protect the interests of the person giving the advantage or a third party Taking or failing to perform an act is punishable by a prison sentence of up to three years or a fine.

It is also worth taking a look at this work by Daniel Harrich, who has taken the peculiar genre of “investigative television films” in Germany to a new level.

In addition, the service he renders to public broadcasters with this hybrid of entertainment and education cannot be overestimated.

“On the Abyss”, from March 6th.

at 8:15 p.m. on ARD;

already available in the media library.