A decade after the terrorist attack on a Berlin Christmas market, a new six-part TV series titled "Blindspot Berlin" investigates the institutional failures that allowed the deadly truck rampage to occur. The series had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and follows the year-long police investigation that failed to prevent Anis Amri, a Tunisian whose asylum applications were rejected and who was known to German security services, from driving a hijacked truck into a crowded Christmas market at Berlin's Breitscheidplatz on December 19, 2016.
The attack resulted in the deaths of twelve people, including Lukasz Urban, the Polish driver who was shot by Amri before he seized the vehicle. Dozens more were injured, and a 13th victim succumbed to their injuries in 2021. Amri fled the scene and traveled across Europe before being shot dead by Italian police near Milan during a routine identity check four days later.
Director David Nawrath stated, "What happened behind the scenes of that attack is in many ways just as disturbing. [It's] a picture of overwhelmed institutions, systemic failure and a staggering blindness to the threat that was developing right in front of our eyes."
The series is set in the year leading up to the attack and follows police investigator Frank Laudin and Isra Al-Husseini, a young officer and Arabic-language translator, as they attempt to infiltrate the Salafist network surrounding Abu Walaa, an Iraqi preacher who recruited for the extremist group Islamic State (IS). Frank recruits Murat, who risks his life as an undercover informant. Within the network, they encounter Amri, who is portrayed as increasingly volatile and dangerous.
Despite multiple warnings, their superiors do not take the threat seriously, dismissing Amri as a potential terrorist partly because he was also involved in drug dealing, which authorities viewed as incompatible with radical Islamist behavior.
The writers and production team based "Blindspot Berlin" closely on the facts of the Amri case and the subsequent parliamentary investigation into the institutional failures that allowed the attack to occur. While the main characters are fictionalized, the events are depicted as they unfolded in reality. Producer Simon Amberger noted, "We tried to keep as close as possible to what is known about the attack and what led to it. There is still a lot that isn't known, that is speculation. There we tried to leave things open."
The parliamentary inquiry found that the criminal division investigating Amri was severely understaffed, that judicial and security agencies failed to coordinate information sharing, and that officials made significant errors in judgment. Although Amri's asylum claims were rejected, he was not deported. At one point, Amri attempted to leave Germany to reunite with his family but was stopped at the border, where police confiscated his passport due to a lack of proper documentation.
The producers recognized that the story has implications beyond Germany, as the Breitscheidplatz attack occurred amid a series of assaults across Europe, including the Bataclan attack in Paris in 2015, the Brussels bombings, and a similar truck attack in Nice in 2016. Despite lessons learned over the past decade, threat levels remain high, as evidenced by a recent incident on July 25, when a man drove a van into crowds at the Christopher Street Day celebrations in Berlin, resulting in one death and numerous injuries.
The Breitscheidplatz attack continues to raise questions about the balance between freedom and security in a democratic society, according to Amberger. He acknowledged that the narrative surrounding Islamic extremism and the German state's failure to protect its citizens may be perceived differently in light of recent elections that have seen increased support for the far-right AfD party, known for its anti-immigrant and Islamophobic stance. Amberger cautioned, "There is a danger that this story, this series, could be misused to support a simplistic, populist political agenda. But it isn't that simple. [In the series] we show how extremism arises in marginalized groups that feel isolated, unseen and powerless. The solution isn't 'stop immigration.'"
"Blindspot Berlin" is set to premiere in Germany on public broadcaster ARD in October, with plans for international distribution also underway.