Documentary backdrop image for Scent Evidence (2025)

Documentary backdrop image for Scent Evidence (2025)

202578 minPG-13documentary

Scent Evidence

202578 minPG-13documentary

Since the 1980s, scent trails have been used as a primary form of evidence in criminal cases across Central Europe, despite scientific skepticism.

Genres

Director

Synopsis

Since the 1980s, scent trails have been used as a primary form of evidence in criminal cases across Central Europe, despite scientific skepticism.

People

Zuzana Piussidirector

Synopsis

Zuzana Piussi investigates the use of scent trails as evidence in criminal cases, a method first developed in the USSR and later adopted by the East German secret police. The film examines its application in the post-communist Czech Republic, where scent detection by dogs has become a standard practice in police work. It follows individuals seeking retrials for unjust convictions, questioning the reliability of scent evidence, which remains contested by scientists despite its frequent use in court.

Comments

What are people saying?

Play More Like This

How to Escape a Police Sniffing Dog (2023)

How to Escape a Police Sniffing Dog

One hour is given for a trained dog to find a person hiding in a forest, testing the limits of canine tracking abilities.

How to Escape a Police Sniffing Dog

Two Murders Connected By Bullets (2024)

Two Murders Connected By Bullets

Three murder cases highlight how trace evidence like fingerprints and DNA, along with natural clues such as insect bites and bacteria, lead to convictions.

Two Murders Connected By Bullets

From The Night Stalker To Richard Ramirez: Catching A Killer (2023)

From The Night Stalker To Richard Ramirez: Catching A Killer

Two distinct footprints found at a crime scene in Whittier, California, helped detectives link the murders to Richard Ramirez.

From The Night Stalker To Richard Ramirez: Catching A Killer

The Most Chilling Torture Case Solved by CCTV (2025)

The Most Chilling Torture Case Solved by CCTV

Two murder investigations highlight the critical role of digital forensics and CCTV footage in modern police work, revealing how criminals leave a digital footprint.

The Most Chilling Torture Case Solved by CCTV

The Only Evidence that was left behind was a thumbprint on a broken glass bottle (2026)

The Only Evidence that was left behind was a thumbprint on a broken glass bottle

Dubious forensic techniques, including touch DNA and cadaver dogs, have led to the wrongful convictions of innocent individuals in various criminal cases.

The Only Evidence that was left behind was a thumbprint on a broken glass bottle

Catching a Serial Killer with the Weirdest Forensic Technique | Exhibit A (2026)

Catching a Serial Killer with the Weirdest Forensic Technique | Exhibit A

Dubious forensic techniques, including touch DNA and cadaver dogs, have led to wrongful convictions of innocent individuals in various criminal cases.

Catching a Serial Killer with the Weirdest Forensic Technique | Exhibit A

What is Forensic Entomology? (2026)

What is Forensic Entomology?

Forensic techniques such as touch DNA and cadaver dogs have led to the wrongful convictions of innocent individuals in various criminal cases.

What is Forensic Entomology?

Forensics 3.0 - How modern crime labs are closing in on criminals (2026)

Forensics 3.0 - How modern crime labs are closing in on criminals

Forensic science advancements, including virtual crime scene reconstruction and AI challenges, are exemplified by the work of the State Criminal Police Office in Wiesbaden.

Forensics 3.0 - How modern crime labs are closing in on criminals

How Forensics Catch Killers: Profiling, Crime Scene Photos & DNA Testing (2026)

How Forensics Catch Killers: Profiling, Crime Scene Photos & DNA Testing

Psychological profiling, crime scene photography, and DNA testing are essential tools in modern criminal investigations, aiding in the identification and conviction of offenders.

How Forensics Catch Killers: Profiling, Crime Scene Photos & DNA Testing

Missing Bodies, Unseen Justice: Unsolved Homicides Examined (2023)

Missing Bodies, Unseen Justice: Unsolved Homicides Examined

Detectives solve murders using evidence like blood and fingernail fragments without bodies.

Missing Bodies, Unseen Justice: Unsolved Homicides Examined

Explore Scent Evidence

Browse more like this

From The Night Stalker To Richard Ramirez: Catching A Killer (2023)

From The Night Stalker To Richard Ramirez: Catching A Killer

Two distinct footprints found at a crime scene in Whittier, California, helped detectives link the murders to Richard Ramirez.

From The Night Stalker To Richard Ramirez: Catching A Killer

No digital watch option in your country

The Most Chilling Torture Case Solved by CCTV (2025)

The Most Chilling Torture Case Solved by CCTV

Two murder investigations highlight the critical role of digital forensics and CCTV footage in modern police work, revealing how criminals leave a digital footprint.

The Most Chilling Torture Case Solved by CCTV

No digital watch option in your country

How Forensics Catch Killers: Profiling, Crime Scene Photos & DNA Testing (2026)

How Forensics Catch Killers: Profiling, Crime Scene Photos & DNA Testing

Psychological profiling, crime scene photography, and DNA testing are essential tools in modern criminal investigations, aiding in the identification and conviction of offenders.

How Forensics Catch Killers: Profiling, Crime Scene Photos & DNA Testing

No digital watch option in your country

Extreme Forensics (2008)

Extreme Forensics

2008•1h•★6.5TMDB

New forensic techniques are used to solve bizarre crime scenes and complex cases involving cunning criminal minds.

Extreme Forensics

Caught in the Net (2022)

Caught in the Net

2022•1h36m•★7.9TMDB

Three actresses pose as adolescent girls on social media, leading to multiple arrests of sexual predators after the film's release.

Caught in the Net

Witness to Murder: Digital Evidence (2023)

Witness to Murder: Digital Evidence

2023•43m•★6.5TMDB

Technology plays a crucial role in solving homicides, with cell phone data, GPS devices, and surveillance footage providing key evidence in investigations.

Witness to Murder: Digital Evidence

Skin Hunters (2024)

Skin Hunters

2024•45m•★7.5TMDB

Numerous premature deaths occur in Lodz, Poland, as detectives investigate a network of emergency medical workers and funeral home owners exploiting vulnerable patients.

The Trial (2011)

The Trial

2011•1h56m•★6.3TMDB

Five million Euros were spent on an investigation that failed to produce substantial evidence against Sabine Koch and 12 fellow activists accused of terrorism.

Normalization (2013)

Normalization

2013•1h40m•★8.0TMDB

Seven individuals were convicted in the 1980s for the unsolved murder of a young woman in Czechoslovakia, yet they continue to claim their innocence.

Exhibit A (2019)

Exhibit A

2019•2h44m•★7.1TMDB

More than 20 wrongful convictions have occurred due to unreliable forensic methods like touch DNA and cadaver dogs.

Exhibit A: Secrets of Forensic Science (1997)

Exhibit A: Secrets of Forensic Science

1997•32h30m•★6.0TMDB

Explore how forensic science untangles the mysteries of murder cases.

Exhibit A: Secrets of Forensic Science

The Staircase II: The Last Chance (2012)

The Staircase II: The Last Chance

2012•2h10m•★7.3TMDB

2012 marks a critical year for Michael Peterson as he confronts renewed legal challenges and significant flaws in the forensics that led to his conviction.

The Staircase II: The Last Chance

Spuren - Die Opfer des NSU (2020)

Spuren - Die Opfer des NSU

2020•1h21m•★7.0TMDB

Eight men of Turkish descent, a Greek man, and a German policewoman were murdered between September 2000 and April 2007 by the National Socialist Underground.

Spuren - Die Opfer des NSU

Browse more by Zuzana Piussi

View all films →

Fragile Identity (2013)

Fragile Identity

2013

Voice of the Forest (2025)

Voice of the Forest

2025

Koliba (2009)

Koliba

2009

University and Freedom (2019)

University and Freedom

2019

Crying of Angels (2005)

Crying of Angels

2005

Od Fica do Fica (2012)

Od Fica do Fica

2012

The Ordeal (2021)

The Ordeal

2021

Is this your film?

If you made this film or hold the rights to it, we'd like to talk. We can license it and pay you a share of what it earns.

License it with us →