Three months before the state elections, Magnus Mittendorf's (Christian Berkel) bodyguards have plenty to do.
The minister is under pressure.
He has to undo scandalous headlines thrown at him by his Secretary of State, and the best way to do that is to show himself more often than usual.
The minister seems to have integrity
An appearance at “Dialog Mittelstand”, a talk show, an award ceremony.
Such PR stunts should now help.
Mittendorf has a face that can switch from hard doer to charming caretaker in a flash.
He has a sense that his old popularity ratings are still within reach, and he wouldn't begrudge him that.
People who know Mittendorf well, like his bodyguard Jonas Neimann (Max Simonischek), consider him to be a guy with moral integrity.
In "Trügerische Sicherheit", a psychological thriller based on a screenplay by Annika Tepelmann, which quickly gets up to speed with a little sex and a death threat (director: Thomas Kronthaler), the trusting relationship between Mittendorf and Neimann is put to the test: Katharina Borba (Friederike Becht), an expert in social media campaigns, joins Mittendorf's press team.
She is in a relationship with Neimann.
But no one is allowed to know that, while pretty much all the men on the team are dying for the attractive woman.
The minister too.
The glamorous father of several children just doesn't talk about Borba as clumsily as the other predators of creation, who want to "snatch" "the little one" at the latest when faster colleagues are "through with her".
Neimann doesn't care about the talk.
But he overhears the Minister flattering Borba and even persuading him to go to a concert together.
Late one evening - the team has washed a successful appearance of the minister with champagne, Borba staggers through the corridors - all the campaigners except for Borba and Mittendorf come out of the office.
Bodyguard Neimann is waiting outside in the car.
Seething with jealousy.
When he confronts his girlfriend, "Deceptive Security" turns out to be a metoo drama: Borba reports how the minister abused her after the office party.
"You have to report him," says Neimann.
No, Borba replies, everyone would just say that she was partly to blame.
And even if the others understood what was happening: "Believe me, one way or the other, I'll pay for it in the end."
Other films would stick more closely to Borba after this scene and watch her suffer from the assault.
It only occasionally hints at "deceptive security" - and stays with Neimann;
quite an interesting perspective.
Neimann cannot bear that Mittendorf could get away with the attack and looks for evidence that incriminates him.
And he froths even more when he witnesses a discussion between the minister and his adult daughter Theresa (Hannah Dalmeyer) in Mittendorf's villa.
Theresa tells of a professor who was put on leave after allegations of Metoo, there was an argument with the father, who defended the professor "out of concern for the rule of law", and then Mittendorf complained to his bodyguard Neimann about the "Zeitgeist" that seduce some women into lying.
Neimann can hardly contain himself.
Could he still react professionally in an attempt on the minister's life?
Would he still want to react at all?
The film spells out such thoughts somewhat unnecessarily with a series of acoustic and visual flashbacks.
Nevertheless, "Tügerische Sicherheit" has become a gripping, fluently edited Monday thriller, cast in a consistent manner right down to the supporting roles.
One could even imagine a small series about bodyguard Jonas Neimann, whatever would become of Max Simonischek's dark "Kommissar Laim".
Deceptive security
is on ZDF today at 8:15 p.m.