Daniel Brühl’s directorial debut is spot-on: Berlin, the Prenzlauer Berg district. When this summer day is over, nothing will ever be the same again. Only Daniel doesn’t know that yet. The protagonist of this tragicomic scenario is as unsuspecting as he is accustomed to success. His loft apartment is stylish and so is his wife, and nanny has the children under control. Popping into the bar on the corner, he finds Bruno sitting there. Bruno has been waiting for this moment for a long time. And so this eternally overlooked man – one of reunification’s losers and a victim of the gentrification of what was once East Berlin – takes his revenge. With Daniel as his target.

A police station in the middle of a peaceful German town with a comparatively high number of foreigners is threatened with closure due to a lack of local crime. Tina, the commissioner, is sent by a superior authority to get it shut down as quickly as possible, but local police officers Deniz, Rocky, Annette and Hagen will not stand for it. To convince her of the “imperative” of their station, they make a snap decision to simply fake a few crimes themselves and also simulate some strenuous investigative work.

Based on a short story by Stephen King (Rest Stop), The Passenger is a psycho-thriller about two very different friends who make a fateful stop one night at a rest area on the deserted stretch of the Desert Highway. The decisions they make will change their relationship forever…