Asger, who was once a beat cop and wants to be on the street as much as he dislikes being behind the desk, gets a call from a panicked woman. She says she has been abducted by someone. As the movie unfolds, we learn from telephonic conversations that she has been kidnapped by her estranged husband, and her kids are at home alone.
When he realises that field officers assigned to the case are dragging their feet, Asger takes matters into his own hands. Armed only with a phone—as he has been barred from the streets pending a hearing on a violent incident—he begins to outsmart the abductor.
The Guilty soon switches gears. From being a routine police procedure drama, it becomes a character study of Asger as he learns the troubling details about the abduction and the stormy marriage that preceded it.
With just a man behind a desk and the phone at his disposal, director Gustav Moller manages to craft a fine thriller unfolding in real-time, one shocking revelation after another. The Guilty has been chosen as the Danish entry for the best foreign language film at the 91st Oscars.