Exterritorial

In Exterritorial, director Christian Zübert delivers a breathless thriller set in the unique and surreal setting of the US consulate in Germany, but brimming with paranoia, kinetic tension, and emotional instability worthy of a real battlefield. The film begins in deceptive calm: Sara (played with remarkable intensity by Jeanne Goursaud), a former special forces soldier bearing visible scars from her time in Afghanistan, arrives at the consulate with her young son Josh (Rickson Guy da Silva) to apply for a visa. Within minutes, director Christian Zübert introduces the central mystery: Sara steps away for a moment, then returns to find Josh missing. What follows is a tense and deliberately disorienting descent into a psychological and physical labyrinth, where the boundaries between reality, trauma, and manipulation blur.

From the very first images, Exterritorial makes its intentions clear: this is not just a thriller about a missing child, but a multi-layered character study dressed up as an action thriller. Sara's post-traumatic stress disorder is not a narrative gimmick, but a crucial element that helps shape the film's unreliable perspective. When CCTV footage appears to show that she arrived alone, it's not just the characters on screen who question her sanity; we, the audience, are also forced to navigate this reality alongside her. Is Josh a figment of her trauma, or is something more sinister at work? This ambiguity fuels the film's most suspenseful moments, making every room, hallway, and confrontation within the consulate feel like a trap.

Director Christian Zübert skillfully exploits the claustrophobic feel of the consulate, a space traditionally associated with security and procedure, and turns it into a full-fledged antagonist. The architecture becomes an oppressive labyrinth of closed doors, neon-lit offices, and sterile waiting rooms, where something always seems slightly off. Like the narrative, the environment is unforgiving and sterile, and it is in this suffocating microcosm that Sara transforms from an anxious mother into a relentless warrior. Christian Zübert's decision to anchor much of the film's action in these confined spaces heightens the stakes and immediacy, while underscoring the film's most striking metaphor: Sara is trapped, not only physically, but also psychologically.

The action sequences are sharp, unadorned, and intensely physical, clearly choreographed to reflect Sara's military training. In a particularly captivating scene, shot in a long take reminiscent of Atomic Blonde, Sara confronts two attackers in a brutal and realistic fight, where survival is as much about maternal instinct as it is about physical prowess. There is an almost primitive desperation in her movements, and Goursaud conveys it with total conviction. She embodies Sara not as an invincible heroine, but as a person driven by fear and determination, who keeps herself afloat by a thin emotional thread. It is this mixture of strength and fragility that anchors the film. And in those moments when Sara wipes the blood from her face or pulls her hair back into a tight bun before the fight, Exterritorial scores rare points for realism in the action genre.

The supporting cast skillfully backs up the story. Dougray Scott, often typecast in moral roles, plays Erik Kynch with a quiet menace. He's calm, calculating, and clearly hiding something, but the film doesn't rush to reveal what that is. Kayode Akinyemi adds weight to the character of Sergeant Donovan, though his role could have been fleshed out more. Even more frustrating is the character of Irina (Lera Abova), an intriguing newcomer who arrives midway through the story as a potential ally with her own complex motivations. While Lera Abova brings a quiet charisma to the screen, her narrative arc ultimately runs out of steam, never really living up to the promise of her mysterious entrance.

If there is a structural flaw in Exterritorial, it lies in its final act. After an hour of constant escalation—tight editing, laconic exchanges, and almost constant movement—Christian Zübert shifts gears and starts to over-explain. As motivations are revealed and plots are decoded, the script leans into exposition, deflating the carefully constructed tension. It's not that the answers aren't plausible, but they lack the punch that the film seemed to be aiming for. It's a strange change of tone, as if Christian Zübert is more comfortable suggesting chaos than resolving it. Nevertheless, the film's momentum and emotional stakes make it captivating, even if the conclusion is softer than expected.

One can't help but draw parallels with Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, where the horror lies not only in the disappearance, but in its denial. This classic of the genre, combining psychological manipulation and conspiracy, finds a spiritual descendant in Exterritorial, although the latter has been adapted for a modern audience accustomed to military thrillers and psychological games. Here, the real horror lies not only in the idea that a child could have been kidnapped, but also in the institutional indifference and bureaucratic coldness that greet such a crisis. At times, the consulate staff behave less like diplomats than manipulators, subtly tightening the screws on a protagonist who is already at the end of his tether.

Netflix has established itself as a haven for mid-budget European thrillers with ambitious premises and polished production values, and Exterritorial stands out as one of the most accomplished films in this growing trend. It may not reinvent the genre, but its commitment to character, atmosphere, and realistic action places it well above the usual formula. Christian Zübert's direction is deliberate, and even in its weakest moments, the film maintains a gripping pace. It's a rare action film that doesn't just ask what happened, but dares to explore why we believe some people and not others when things go wrong.

Exterritorial succeeds where many thrillers fail: it respects the intelligence and trauma of its protagonist. Sara's fight is as much against a dark conspiracy as it is against her own doubts, and it's in this internal struggle that the film finds its most powerful emotional charge. It's a claustrophobic and breathless journey that may falter in its final moments, but never loses sight of the human story beneath it all. Carried by a magnetic Jeanne Goursaud and reinforced by elegant design and solid direction, Exterritorial is an intelligent and suspenseful thriller that understands the price of survival in a world that manipulates women and buries the truth under bureaucracy.

Exterritorial
Written and directed by Christian Zübert
Produced by Kerstin Schmidbauer, Götz Marx, Franziska Suppee, Verena Vogl
Starring Jeanne Goursaud, Dougray Scott, Lera Abova, Kayode Akinyemi, Annabelle Mandeng, Lara Babalola, Nina Liu, Jeremy Schuetze, Samuel Tehrani, Kris Saddler, Samia Selina Hofmann, Melissa Holroyd, Ivan Forlani, Susanne Michel, Michael Rogers, Emanuel Fellmer
Music by Sara Barone
Cinematography: Matthias Pötsch
Edited by Ueli Christen
Production companies: Constant
Distributed by Netflix (United States, France)
Release date: April 30, 2025
Running time: 109 minutes

Seen on April 30, 2025 on Netflix

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