TV tip: Terror in your head? The psychological drama "Exile" on Arte

A family man feels exclusion at work.

TV tip: Terror in your head? The psychological drama "Exile" on Arte

A family man feels exclusion at work. Because he came to Germany from Kosovo many years ago, he believes in a racist background.

His German wife cannot imagine that and accuses him of self-pity. Arte shows the almost two-hour drama "Exile" on Wednesday at 8:15 p.m. A film with depth and surprising twists, but also with some lengths.

The director and screenwriter Visar Morina, also from Kosovo, shows the point of view of the protagonist, who feels increasingly persecuted and misunderstood. And the more he feels persecuted, the less those around him understand him.

If Xhafer (Mišel Matičević) didn't have a migration background, would everything be different? Or would the dead rat be dangling from the garden fence? And would his colleagues withhold important information from him?

For the pharmaceutical engineer, Germany is his second home. With his wife Nora (Sandra Hüller) he has two daughters and a son who is only a few months old. The family lives in a house with a garden. The idyll is not quite perfect. Xhafer keeps having sex with the Albanian cleaning lady in the office toilet. Nora takes care of the children and is also writing her doctoral thesis. Her frustration grows because she is not making any headway in her career.

Nora has no understanding for Xhafer's accusations of bullying against her colleagues, even when the pram is set on fire. The couple argues more and more often. "You don't even know what it means to be a stranger in this would-be cultured and deeply lying country!" Xhafer rumbles. Either you are obviously racist or treated like a less fortunate person.

Xhafer is increasingly developing tunnel vision. The atmosphere in the office is as gloomy and cold as the mood: windowless corridors with neon lights. The man suspects his colleague Urs (Rainer Bock) of stirring up hatred against him. He seeks a conversation with his boss - and once again feels that he is not being taken seriously. His anger grows. But: Is he completely wrong with his allegations?

Matičević and Hüller convince with intense play and let the audience participate in Xhafer's and Nora's drifting apart view of the events. For the father of a family, going to the office becomes a form of psychological terror - the film music by Benedikt Schiefer - which often consists of shrill sounds - underlines and exacerbates the tense mood. Can Xhafer solve the conflict?