“Hysteria is a quick, dense thriller that proves that big films do not necessarily need big budgets.”

German-born filmmaker Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay has already grappled with the unwavering dogmas of Islam before Hysteria, though in his latest film he takes the idea to a new height. In Büyükatalay’s 2019 feature debut Oray, his title character dealt with the aftermath of saying the wrong word at the wrong time. Or perhaps one should say, while a believer in a specific faith, which is almost universally unaccepting of such mistakes.

In his Berlinale title Hysteria, which world premiered in this year’s Panorama section, a film crew deals with the discovery of a burnt-out Quran, on a film set they purposely torched to re-enact a German hate crime incident against Muslim immigrants. This simple discovery, by the crew’s Muslim driver Majid (Nazmi Kırık) sets a whole rollercoaster of actions in motion.

At the center of it all is the film crew’s Turkish-German 2nd AD Elif (played brilliantly by TV and film actress Devrim Lingnau, who shares her character’s background), who also misplaces the keys to the filmmakers’ apartment and sets off a separate set of circumstances which will ultimately collide with the Quran-burning to create a perfect storm of disaster.

At the start of the story, film director Yigit (played by theater and film actor Serkan Kaya) and his producer Lilith (once again the brilliant Nicolette Krebitz, who kicked off this year’s Berlinale with her turn in The Light) have a choice to make. That is, once the burnt-out Quran is discovered on their set – clearly having ended up there by mistake – they can sit down and face the issues brought up by Majid along with fellow refugees Said (Mehdi Meskar) and Mustafa (Aziz Çapkurt), or they can pass the buck, so to speak, to the young intern Elif and wash their hands of the controversy, as well as the tapes containing the scenes filmed that day.

They take the latter road, as most people would, instead of dealing with the ‘Others’ in the room and finding a solution. In our current world where wars are often the lazy politicians’ way out of diplomatic solutions, it’s no surprise that the filmmakers choose to avoid conflict, while they decide what to do with their film. Will they bend to the pressure from the German Ministry of Culture, which has been tipped off about the Quran-burning, or will they go ahead with their original film?

As Elif drives everyone home, all exhausted at the end of an emotionally charged day, she realizes she has lost the keys to Lilith’s and Yigit’s place, which then sets off the part of the film which Büyükatalay admits in the film’s press kit to be what drew him to the story. “Imagine losing your key and receiving a call from someone claiming he has found your keys. Overjoyed, you share your address, eagerly waiting for the stranger to return them… but he never shows up,” he writes, continuing, “Now, out there, someone holds your key, knows where you live, and could enter your home at any moment. Exactly this feeling, this vulnerability was the initial spark for Hysteria.”

German white liberalism banging its head up against Muslim fundamentalism and the interpretation of a religion which is thousands of years old is also a major theme for the Turkish German-born filmmaker in Hysteria, as the man who contacts Elif to say he’s got her keys is referred to as the ‘Stranger’. And when the loss and danger arising from that are finally discovered, Yigit’s decision for restoring safety turns their home into a jail. A prison from which it may be impossible to escape.

Hysteria is a quick, dense thriller that proves that big films do not necessarily need big budgets. And that a story about mistakes is a good way to confront our own wrongdoing and come to terms with the fact that honesty and communication are always the best tools in avoiding a catastrophe. All in all, Hysteria feels fresh and very watchable and if we end up learning something in the process, that’s all the better for this little big film.