You Don't Want to Know (2011 TV Movie)
7/10
intelligent psychological thriller from Germany
24 January 2019
Warning: Spoilers
A couple of successful professionals has it all : money, interesting jobs, a darling little son and a well-cared-for house, complete with foreign nanny. One day the couple attends a party ; on their return, they happen to run into two aggressive young men. It results in a nasty little scene where insults and threats are exchanged. Afterwards, the husband feels very bad about it, mainly because he had been unable to shield his wife. Some time later, he recognizes one of the young men. This time he is firmly resolved to become a victor, not a victim...

A minor thriller but a good one, with fine direction and fine acting. The general tone of the movie is quiet, slow, restrained ; it struck me as a pleasant surprise, after so many contemporary thrillers where scenes and characters hop and shimmy like over-caffeinated rabbits on a trampoline.

The movie points out a deep truth about human beings, to wit that we all develop a certain image of ourselves which becomes both an identity and a fount of self-esteem : we see ourselves, say, as a respectable civil servant, as a competent and protective husband, as a cheeky rebel persecuted by the Man or as a promising but unfortunate artist ignored by philistines. And when something happens to threaten that self-image, we react with great stress and anger, even to the point of fighting, cheating, killing.

"Davon willst Du.." is also a comment on the current class war between the haves and have-nots, as seen in many of our Western cities.
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