Merkel (Original: Die Getriebenen) is a 2020 German historical film. The screenplay is based on the non-fiction book The Restless: Merkel and Refugee Policy by journalist Robin Alexander and reconstructs the refugee crisis in Europe from 2015. The film was shot on original locations in Berlin, Munich, Vienna, Budapest and Brussels. The scenes in the mountains where German Chancellor Angela Merkel spends her summer vacation were shot in the Ötztal Alps in the Tyrolean town of Gurgl.
The film was originally scheduled to be released briefly in German cinemas from the end of March 2020 - according to the trailer - but the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany scuppered those plans. As a result, the film premiered on ARD on April 15, 2020.
In the year of its release in 2020, the feature film received the Producers' Award of the German Academy for Television.

Plot: Summer 2015. Along the Balkan route, more and more Syrian war refugees and migrants are pushing towards Central Europe. Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán refuses to allow them to stay in his country. German Chancellor Merkel is setting her policy with her mantra "We can do it." Her government and party colleagues, above all Bavarian Prime Minister Seehofer, are skeptical and opposed to the open borders policy. In cooperation with Austrian Chancellor Faymann, Merkel organizes the transport of thousands of people from the Hungarian-Austrian state border via Vienna to Germany. The plot reconstructs the 63 days in 2015.