Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky and written by Martin Ambrosch and Claudia Kolland, Cold Hell is about a cab driver named Özge Dogruol (Violetta Schurawlow), who deals with the worst in humanity as she drives the of Vienna every day. She comes across a crime scene and thinks that she’s been spotted by the killer but the police think she hasn’t found anything and is in no danger.

Özge is a character that is anything but a stereotype. She’s Muslim, she’s a Muay Thai fighter in training and she has no problem either knocking men out who are abusive to her or running after the killer to try and catch whoever they are.

Her cousin Ranya (Verena Altenberger) is dating, even though she’s married to Özge’s boss Samir (Robert Palfrader) and depends on Özge to cover up her affairs. She also borrows the Muay Thai championship jacket that our heroine wears, which has the killer come after her and snuff her out, which adds a layer of guilt to the reasons why Özge need to find that smiling knife murderer who is also a radical religion believer who is killing Muslim sex workers based on how the Koran speaks of Hell.

Not only is Özge an outsider in this new country, she is in her family as well. They’ve never believed that her father molester her and now that Ranya’s young daughter will be raised in their house, she takes her away even though she’s been trailed by a giallo-style killer. To protect herself, she moves herself in to the home of a burned out cop, Christian Steiner (Tobias Moretti), who is taking care of his father Karl (Friedrich von Thun) who has dementia.

I really enjoyed Cold Hell — it refers to the icy netherworld of Islamic religion — and how it was never an expected story or had a lead you can easily pin down.