German drama 'Blindspot Berlin' revisits 2016 Christmas market attack

A decade after the deadliest jihadist attack in German history, a new six-part television series, Blindspot Berlin, revisits the 2016 Christmas market attack in Berlin. The series, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, examines the institutional failures that allowed the attack to occur. Anis Amri, a Tunisian with a rejected asylum application and a known profile to German security services, drove a hijacked truck into the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market, killing twelve people and injuring many more.

Amri was later killed by Italian police. The series follows police investigator Frank Laudin and Arabic-language translator Isra Al-Husseini as they try to infiltrate the Salafist network around Abu Walaa, who recruited for the extremist group Islamic State (IS). Despite repeated warnings, their superiors refuse to take the threat seriously, dismissing Amri as a possible terrorist due to his involvement in drug dealing.

The series is based on real events and the years-long parliamentary investigation into the institutional failures that led to the attack. The parliamentary inquiry committee found that criminal investigators were understaffed, judicial and security agencies failed to coordinate information exchange, and officials made serious errors.

Amri's asylum claims were rejected, but he was never deported. The series aims to highlight how marginalized groups can feel isolated, unseen, and powerless, leading to extremism. However, it also acknowledges the danger of the story being misused to support a simplistic, populist political agenda.