Exterritorial Review
Director: Christian Zübert.
Date Created: 2025-04-30 14:33
2.5
Exterritorial Review: This action-thriller film on Netflix is directed and written by Christian Zübert. It stars Jeanne Goursaud as the protagonist Sara, Dougray Scott as Erik Kynch, and Lera Abova as Irina. Other cast members include Kayode Akinyemi as Sgt. Donovan and Annabelle Mandeng as Deborah Allen. The runtime of the movie is roughly 1 hour and 49 minutes.
The Netflix’s Exterritorial storyline revolves around Sara, a former special forces officer, whose son is snatched away from her one afternoon while they are visiting the US consulate in Frankfurt. Curiously, the boy is never seen entering the building by anyone at the consulate. Things get fishy rather fast, and Sara resolves to not leave the compound until she finds her son, despite the fact that German authorities have no jurisdiction inside the US compound. What ensues is her frantic exploration of the walls of an incredibly fortified building, where nothing is as it seems.
Exterritorial Review
Initially, the movie’s concept felt thrilling. A mother looking for her missing child in a setting as grave and high-security as a US consulate, this had the potential to be a nail-biting thriller. I was really wondering what had happened to her son and how she would accept the restrictions of such a dominant structure.
But as the movie went along, I lost interest. There were too many lazy bits of writing. The twists were all easy to predict, and none of the suspense scenes really had any tension anyway. I expected something clever or startling to occur, and when it did, most of the time, the movie just phoned it in. You could practically guess what was going to happen, the characters weren’t ready to follow through with their next steps, and that took away a lot of the thrill.
One of the very few things that I liked about Exterritorial was Jeanne Goursaud, who gave a really good performance as the character of Sara. She gave it all she had, and I felt her pain and desperation as a mother. At times, I found myself genuinely cheering for her, particularly when she confronted the folks attempting to strong-arm her out of the consulate. She bore most of the emotional weight of the film easily, but alas, the script didn’t prop her up enough.
I felt her character was unrealistic at times. When I did find myself believing in her, it never lasted long – she gets in and out of a supposedly secure building far too easily. There were certain scenes I found hard to take seriously because I would think to myself, “Would this really happen in real life?” The film was constantly asking the audience to overlook logic, and it was hard to remain emotionally involved.
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As it’s being billed as an action-thriller, I thought there might be some sweet, slick scenes — perhaps an interesting bit of fight choreography. But the set pieces were incredibly mediocre, even clumsy at times. Not terrible; just lacking in energy. I guess what always happens when you see a good action sequence, I didn’t get that rush. The vast majority of the fights seemed either hurried or inelegantly directed.
Pacing was another huge problem. The film slowed down in sections where it should have moved quickly, while extending scenes that would have benefited from greater fluidity. It never established a rhythm that it could maintain. Instead of slow-slow-tension, it was either slow-stall-dump or no tension at all.
The character of Erik Kynch, played by Dougray Scott, was a wonderful surprise in the film. His character messes with Sara’s mind, and that side of the film was somewhat interesting. I didn’t think he could speak German so fluently, it was a cute surprise. But even that role seemed underplayed. He could have been an effective manipulative villain, but the script was never really quite deep enough to make us really remember him.
Lera Abova’s character, the sympathetic Irina, who becomes Sara’s ally, was another lost opportunity. Her backstory was too muddy, and her newfound significance in the plot didn’t feel learned to me. Like the film didn’t know what to do with her, so they thought I don’t know, let’s have her run Sara around the building. That could have made for a powerful partners at work moment, but instead it only felt forced and a little silly.
All those complaints I have, none of them are going to lead me to declare that Exterritorial is utterly unwatchable. It’s the sort of movie you can watch while using your phone. You’re not missing much if you don’t pay full attention. There’s a simple plot, a few mildly interesting characters and, in a weak but existent way, a central mystery that gives you something to chase.
Summing Up
Overall, the Exterritorial movie had a good premise, and the lead actress was amazing, but something about the execution didn’t do it for me. It sucked me in with stupid story beats, boring action, and bad writing. It’s not terrible, but it’s also not the best thriller.
Exterritorial 2025 is now streaming on Netflix.
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