The Fourth State (German: Die Vierte Macht) is a 2012 German thriller directed by Dennis Gansel.

Paul Jensen, a tabloid reporter from Berlin, begins work at a gossip magazine in Moscow, run by his mentor Alexei. With his experience tracking the moves of the rich and famous the circulation figures for the magazine soar. His life is a big party until he meets the beautiful activist Katja and falls in love with her.

She convinces him to run a politically oriented obituary and from there a chain of events tear Paul’s life apart. He is arrested as a terrorist and incarcerated in one of Russia’s most notorious prisons. Soon he realises that he must face his own past to solve the political conspiracy against him.

Review

“A German party journo based in Moscow discovers Russian politics aren’t exactly something to write home about in “The Fourth State,” a steely Euro thriller from Teuton scribe-helmer Dennis Gansel (“The Wave”). Moritz Bleibtreu heads the international cast of this primarily English-language suspenser, which daringly suggests that some states engineer terrorist acts to get public opinion on their side, but otherwise frustratingly sticks to the genre rulebook…After making the uber-stylish, Hollywood-inspired German vampire pic “We Are the Night,” Teuton helmer Gansel here takes the logical next step and makes a film that’s actually in English, though often “State” feels more like a gritty Europe-U.S. hybrid in the mold of the first “Bourne” film…a sleek, solid but not exceptional Euro thriller.” Variety