8 days

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Television series
German title 8 days
Country of production Germany
original language German
year 2019
length 43-51 minutes
Episodes 8 in 1 season
Director Stefan Ruzowitzky ,
Michael Krummenacher
idea Rafael Parente, Peter Kocyla
script Peter Kocyla , Rafael Parente, Benjamin Seiler
music David Reichelt
camera Benedict Neuenfels
First broadcast March 1, 2019 on Sky Germany
occupation

Eight days is an end time - miniseries that of Sky Germany and the production company New Super was produced. Stefan Ruzowitzky and Michael Krummenacher were hired as directors . The series aims to show how different people deal with the impending end of the world. Christiane Paul and Mark Waschke play the leading roles . The first two episodes were shown in February 2019 as part of the Berlinale Series in the Berlinale Special section at the 69th Berlinale . The release on Sky followed on March 1, 2019.

action

The earth is threatened by an asteroid with a diameter of 60 kilometers, which is hurtling towards Europe at 30,000 km / h and is expected to hit La Rochelle in France. Attempts by the USA to blow up the asteroid using nuclear missiles or to deflect it from the earth fail. The chances of survival in Central Europe are practically zero, so that many are on the run, others come to terms with the impending end. The borders of Europe have been cordoned off, and neighboring countries where survival would be possible no longer accept refugees. An exit to other countries is only possible with special entry restrictions.

The last 8 days of some actors are shown in several interwoven storylines. The place of action is predominantly Berlin.

The focus is on the married couple Uli and Susanne with their two children Leonie and Jonas. The family tries to flee to Russia via Poland. A Polish escape worker helps the family and hides them in his home. The youthful son of the escape helper tries to rape Leonie, but is prevented from doing so by Susanne. In the following argument between Susanne and the armed wife of the escape helper, a gunshot is triggered that seriously injures the escape helper's son. Susanne brings the gun under her control and shoots the escape helper's wife with it. The escape helper escapes and Susanne and Uli can escape with their two children.

Hermann, Susanne's brother, is trying to use his position as government advisor to get two of the coveted seats on an evacuation flight of the US Air Force for himself and his heavily pregnant girlfriend Marion. After many phone calls, this seems to have worked, but at the airport it turns out that there is only a seat available for him. Since his girlfriend is not married to him, she has no place. Due to her pregnancy, she was granted a place after all, but the action was canceled by the Airforce at check-in. Nobody is evacuated this way anymore.

Meanwhile, Klaus, a building contractor, has taken precautions and built a bunker in the past few months. However, during the construction phase, his wife became estranged from him and committed suicide. Their daughter Nora shows no motivation to want to survive in the bunker, which is why her father locks her there. Nora manages to escape from the bunker. She goes into hiding with her friend Ben and has one last big party with him, friends and acquaintances. Ben is seriously ill and only has a short lifespan of a few months. Therefore, he has a special relationship to the upcoming asteroid impact, because from his point of view he no longer has to die alone. Nora's father does not like dealing with Ben.

Susanne and Uli's escape to the east continues to be characterized by difficulties. When trying to jump on a moving train, Susanne fails. Leonie jumps off the moving train, while Uli and Jonas stay on the train. Susanne and Leonie break off their escape and return to Berlin. Uli temporarily loses his son on the trip to Russia after he has several problems with Russians who ride on the train and want to go further east.

In the meantime, news has spread through the media that the asteroid will no longer hit La Rochelle due to the nuclear missile impact, but rather in Samara, Russia, near the border with western Kazakhstan . Thus Central Europe is still affected, but survival in bunkers now seems possible there.

Egon, the father of Susanne and Hermann, also lives in Berlin. He is widowed and mourns his time as an NVA officer. He has a difficult relationship with his two children. He doesn't want to flee from the asteroid. When he is about to kill himself, he accidentally finds an old photo of his childhood sweetheart, which seems to give him strength. Flashbacks show how as a young soldier he had a love affair with another soldier, who then fled to West Germany. Egon made contact by phone for the first time in decades. The two now very aged men spend a day together after meeting and admit to each other that they were the great love of their lives. Egon's childhood sweetheart nevertheless returns to his wife out of loyalty, as she has been by his side for decades. Egon is disappointed, but uses the opportunity to improve his relationship with his son and tell him for the first time about his childhood love. On the day before the impact, he finally took his own life in his old service uniform. Hermann and his newlywed wife, Marion, find his body during a visit. He conducts a cremation at sea for the father.

For Hermann and Marion the situation had already become more and more difficult before. Hermann blackmailed his former boss in order to get a place in one of the bunkers for himself and his entire family, including Susanne, Uli and the children. He succeeds in doing this, adding the numbers of the identity cards to the list. It turns out that members of the government are embroiled in a scandal. Instead of building bunkers, money was diverted for personal gain. There are therefore far fewer spaces available in bunkers and Hermann also seems to have enriched himself.

Susanne and Leonie are back in Berlin. When Leonie is out on the party scene with Klaus' daughter Nora, Susanne receives a visit from Deniz, a Berlin police officer of Turkish descent with whom she has had an affair for a long time. Without a word, they indulge in a night of love. The next morning Leonie finds the stranger in bed and tears away temporarily out of disappointment.

Uli returns to Berlin with his rediscovered son, so the family is reunited. He knows nothing about Susanne's affair and Uli only sees Deniz as a police officer.

An important filter in Klaus' bunker was damaged when his daughter escaped. He therefore contacts his friend Lutz, who has also built a bunker. Although Lutz has the filter in stock, he doesn't want to give it to Klaus. In the fight, Klaus kills him and loots some items from the former friend's bunker. When two of Lutz's friends suspect Klaus, he puts the blame on Ben, from whose party he brought his daughter Nora back to his bunker, but not locked it up. Klaus and Lutz 'friends storm Ben's party in protective suits with carbon dioxide extinguishers. In the end they don't shoot Ben with Lutz's sniper rifle, but Ben's best friend suffocates.

Susanne, Uli and the two children have since found out that there are places in a bunker ready for them. They move into the government-run bunker. Apparently it is a happy ending for the family, but since a journalist, Marion's sister, published the secret locations of the shelters, the bunker was attacked from the outside on the first day. Soldiers and civilians who have not been given a seat force their way into the bunker. The family escapes, but many other civilians die in the fighting.

Public order has largely collapsed. There are hardly any police left, Deniz is the only officer in his office. There is chaos in the streets.

In difficult times, people try to cling to religion too. This is the context in which Robin, a young criminal who has been housed in a church for the past few weeks, shows himself. Robin is obviously a bit retarded, he can neither read nor write. However, his naive demeanor gives him a strong charisma . When he happens to save the life of a drug addict, bystanders recognize him as a kind of savior and treat him like a reincarnation of Jesus. Robin set up his domicile on a small old barge. Leonie is also captivated by his appearance and falls in love with him. The two have sex in a lake. Uli has since found out about Susanne's affair. After the failed escape and the stormed bunker, that is another low blow for him in a short time. However, he hardly shows anything and still spends a very happy day at home with the family. He plans to kill the family with a poisoned lasagne to save everyone from imminent doom. However, Susanne notices this in good time and leaves the house with the children.

Deniz receives an offer from Klaus to be allowed to come into his bunker if Deniz hands over the weapons to his office for defense purposes. Deniz joins him and brings the weapons with him, but he does not give up his principles as a police officer. Shortly thereafter, Klaus shows himself to be a sadist who has gathered a small group of men around him who call themselves “the survivors”. For Deniz this remains a community of convenience, as he visibly detests the aggressive and selfish behavior of the self-proclaimed leader Klaus.

Susanne is not yet ready to give up. She also knows that Klaus has a bunker. She dresses provocatively and drives her children to Klaus to convince him to let everyone into the bunker. Susanne prostitutes herself for Klaus, but cannot hide her disgust for him. This situation leads Deniz to leave the group for good. Klaus then tells Susanne that only she is welcome in the bunker. To prevent them from escaping, he locks them in the bunker and scares them away both of their children.

Leonie then rushes to Robin and asks him for help. Robin and his followers go to Klaus in a kind of procession and demand the release of Susanne without violence. Klaus beats Robin, who does not defend himself, with great brutality, while none of the people around intervenes. The half-hearted calls do not stop Klaus while he fights himself into a frenzy. However, the way Robin takes the blows impresses the bystanders. While Klaus is still beating him, Susanne is freed by Nora, Klaus' daughter. This causes Klaus to let go of Robin. Robin returns to his ship with his followers and Leonie, with her mother's consent. Nora also leaves the scene in shock. Susanne and her son Jonas go home again. The next day, the other members of the “survivors” expel Klaus from the group and plunder his arsenal.

In search of his wife and children, Uli also drives to Deniz's office, where he meets him drunk. Uli knows that Deniz is his wife's lover. The two men fight with each other, while Uli is shot by Deniz when he tries to escape from Ulis' stranglehold. Deniz bandages his wound. When he comes to, the two have a clarifying conversation.

A few hours before the impact, the situation comes to a head for everyone involved.

Marion is in Susanne's house with Hermann. Marion is in labor and delivery is imminent. Hermann tries to get hold of places in a bunker for himself and Marion. He is now threatening his former supervisor, who also cheated during the selection process for the bunkers. When he tries to escape, Hermann turns in his former superior and leaves him to an angry mob, saying that they are responsible for the lack of bunker space. Hermann tells Marion over the phone that he now has bunker space and arranges a meeting point with her. Marion brings the child into the world with Susanne's help and shortly afterwards drives the baby to the meeting point.

In Klaus' bunker he has another argument with his daughter Nora after she found out that her father was responsible for the hanging of Ben. She aims a gun at her father, who is also armed. The situation threatens to escalate. In search of Susanne, Deniz appears just in time and shoots Klaus in the neck, whereupon he dies shortly afterwards.

Hermann has taken the ID of the dead former superior. This ID is the access card to the government bunker, but only for the dead superior. After a brief thought, Hermann leaves Marion and his newborn baby behind and goes alone towards the bunker entrance. Since he does not look like the photo in the ID card, he inflicts serious injuries on his face with a stone. He succeeds in passing through the access control. Meanwhile, Marion is still waiting at the discussed meeting point, the newly born baby in her arms. She doesn't know that Hermann let her down.

The asteroid impact will take place in a few minutes.

Robin is on the old ship with his followers, because this is interpreted by Robin's followers as the path to salvation. However, immediately after the start, the ship's engine gives up the ghost. Robin is therefore convinced that he has suffered too little to save his own. He then lets his followers crucify himself like Jesus on a wooden cross on the ship's chimney. When Leonie tries to dissuade him from this, she is chased away by Robin's supporters and flees home again.

Deniz drives to Susanne's house, picks her and the two children up and brings them to Klaus' bunker. The wounded Uli, whom he brought there earlier, is already waiting there. Deniz says goodbye to Susanne forever because there is no room for himself in the bunker. By this he means above all the family structure, which he does not want to destroy. Uli, Susanne and their two children stay in the bunker with Nora. After many detours it is clear that the family has a chance of survival.

Inside the government bunker, Hermann realizes too late that he has made a big mistake and wants to go back to his wife Marion and his baby, but the bunker doors are finally locked. Hermann has to stay in the bunker desperately. Deniz returns to his office to die lonely there.

Marion is still standing at the meeting point with the baby in her arms, knowing full well that Hermann will not come any more.

While the approaching asteroid, which can already be seen in the sky, is about to hit, she continues to hold her newborn in her arms and watch the asteroid's flight path. The last shot shows a relaxed smile on her face.

Anyone in Europe who is not yet in a bunker will die from the impact of the asteroid.

The final impact of the asteroid and the immediate consequences of the impact are no longer shown.

background

After the 78 days of filming in Berlin, Brandenburg and Bavaria were completed, the Neuesuper production company was awarded the Green Filming Pass by the Film Commission Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein for demonstrably environmentally conscious filming.

The publication was originally scheduled for the end of 2018. In August 2018, however, it was announced that the series would be postponed to early 2019 due to numerous other series starts on Sky.

To advertise the series, Sky placed full-page advertisements in the style of the respective newspaper on the front page of various tabloids such as Hamburger Morgenpost , Berliner Kurier , tz and Express on February 22, 2019, eight days before the first broadcast . The headline announced the imminent impact of an asteroid in eight days. The advertising was designed in such a way that at first glance the impression should be given that it was a real message.

Awards and nominations

German Film Music Award 2019

German Acting Award 2019

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berlinale Series 2019: Innovative formats and long-awaited series highlights in the fifth year in a row . Berlinale 2019, press release of January 17, 2019, accessed on March 4, 2019.
  2. ↑ Photo of the day: The last days are numbered. In: mediabiz.de. Blickpunkt: Film , October 30, 2017, archived from the original on October 31, 2017 ; accessed on November 1, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Sky postpones series. In: tagesspiegel.de. August 7, 2018, accessed August 7, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Sky fools newspaper readers with news about asteroid impact , Leipziger Volkszeitung from February 22, 2019; Accessed March 4, 2019
  5. ↑ Series "8 Days" - Apocalypse light , Süddeutsche.de from March 1, 2019; Accessed March 4, 2019
  6. ^ German film music award for music from the miniseries "8 Days". In: sueddeutsche.de. November 8, 2019, accessed November 9, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Timo Niemeier: German Acting Award 2019: These are the nominees. In: DWDL.de . June 16, 2019, accessed July 11, 2020 .