The Invisible Ones

The gruesome “acid barrel murders” of the 1990s have gone down in German criminal history — but for a long time, nobody knew the woman who helped catch the perpetrator. Marianne Atzeroth-Freier was one of the first female detectives in the Hamburg homicide division. While investigating a missing person case, she uncovered several inconsistencies and turned to her male colleagues — but nobody within the police apparatus wanted to listen to her. Undeterred, she continued her investigation on her own… With the success of the Amazon series “Gefesselt”, the infamous acid barrel murders have once again returned to the spotlight. THE INVISIBLES reveals the shocking background of the case and the investigator’s difficult journey toward solving this unimaginable crime. In his moving and deeply personal documentary, Matthias Freier tells the story of his stepmother, who fought against patriarchal dominance within the police system in her relentless pursuit of the truth — featuring previously unseen archival footage.