TATTOO

Year: 2002
UK: Metro Tartan Films
Cast: August Diehl, Christian Redl, Nadeshda Brennicke, Ilkur Bahadir, Jasmin Schwiers, Johan Leysen, Monika Bleibtreu, Joe Bausch, Gustav-Peter Wöhler, Faith Cevikkollu, Florian Panzner, Ingo Naujoks
Director: Robert Schwentke
Countries: France / Germany
Language: German (English subtitles)
UK: 107 mins
UK Certificate: 18 contains strong violence and horror
UK Release Date: 5 December 2003

Synopsis

Marc (August Diehl), freshly graduated from police academy, loves the clubbing lifestyle and the drugs that are part of it. On one occasion when Detective Minks (Christian Redl) and his people raid the place, Marc escapes, but his jacket is found. Pills are found in one of the pockets, and Minks brings Marc in to discuss the matter. He offers his young colleague a tough decision: Marc will either work for him in homicide, or his career will be finished on drug possessions charges.

The two of them embark on the trail of a series of brutal killings. But there are other reasons why the cynical Detective, generally feared for his unconventional methods, wants Marc at his side. He wants to get access to a world that's closed to him, a world which Marc frequents, a world which swallowed up his daughter Marie two years previously.

Marc's investigation leads him to the burnt corpse of a young woman, the latest in a series of bloody murders, which all have one thing in common: the perpetrator seems to dissect his (or their) victims with a scalpel - all of them are missing large pieces of skin. And it is no coincidence that each of the victim's had a tattoo

During his investigations Marc comes across Maya (Nadeshda Brennicke), the beautiful if rather reserved girlfriend of one of the victims. She too looks like being sucked into the maelstrom of this case, from which there seems to be no escape. And yet, she also seems to hold the key to discovering the motives for the murders and the identity of the killer.