German Series Projects Impress With Timely Subject Matter: Murder, Intrigue, Scandal, Mystery
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Loading... - Marc Blaise
- 21 Feb 2023
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Political assassinations, war, espionage, royal scandals, teen angst and magic: new German series are setting the bar ever higher in terms of challenging and risky subject matter.
The Berlinale Series Market’s Up Next: Germany showcase on Monday presented four forthcoming series projects that look set to entice international buyers:
- Sperl Film’s political drama “Herrhausen – Lord of the Money,” about Deutsche Bank Chairman Alfred Herrhausen, whose mysterious assassination remains one of Germany’s most infamous unsolved murders;
- Studio Zentral’s “Feelings,” a coming-of-age mystery tale that boasts an innovative multi-platform distribution strategy;
- Contrast Film and Letterbox Filmproduktion’s German-Swiss co-production “Davos,” a spy-thriller set in the Alpine resort town during World War I;
- and Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion’s “Juan Carlos,” an investigative documentary about the disgraced former Spanish monarch.
Presenting “Herrhausen,” creator Christer von Lindequist and actor Oliver Masucci discussed the impact of the 1989 assassination, which continues to reverberate in Germany. It was also the subject of Andres Veiel’s acclaimed 2001 documentary “Black Box BRD.”
“If you were born in the ’70s like me I think you remember where you were when this happened because it was a big event,” said von Lindequist. “It happened right after the fall of the Wall.”
Particularly as a native of Frankfurt, Lindequist said the mystery of Herrhausen’s death had always intrigued him. The former Deutsche Bank chairman was on his way to the city when he was killed near his home in nearby Bad Homburg by a roadside explosion that pierced his armored Mercedez-Benz.
Set against the backdrop of fall of the Berlin Wall, shifting geo-political alliances, the closing of the East-West divide and Herrhausen’s controversial support for debt relief for developing countries that pitted him against many Western bank executives, the series is particularly relevant today, von Lindequist noted.
“Herrhausen” is produced by Gabriela Sperl’s Sperl Film in cooperation with X Filme and in co-produciton with ARD Degeto, RBB, SWR, HR, Belgium’s Beside Productions and Avriofilms in Greece.
In “Feelings,” presented by head writer Riccarda Scheemann, director Clara Zoë My-Linh von Arnim and producer Christine Hartmann, a teenage girl moves with her father to a small village near the woods. As she struggles to adjust to her new life and make new friends, she feels the pull of the mysterious woods. Read More…
