In the face of crime

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Television series
Original title In the face of crime
Country of production Germany
original language German
length 50 minutes
Episodes 10
Director Dominik Graf
script Rolf Basedow
production Marc Conrad ,
Wolfgang Delhaes
music Florian van Volxem ,
Sven Rossenbach
camera Michael Wiesweg
cut Claudia Wolscht
occupation
Director Dominik Graf (2010)
Actor Max Riemelt (2010)
Actress Marie Bäumer (2009)
Actor Mišel Matičević (2011)

In the Face of the Crime is a ten-part German crime series by screenwriter Rolf Basedow and director Dominik Graf from 2010. Max Riemelt and Ronald Zehrfeld play two Berlin police officers who investigate the mafia family . The series with its sometimes quite drastic presentation received numerous positive reviews. It premiered at the Berlinale 2010 and on television at Arte . Since the audience numbers fell short of expectations when it was later broadcast on the first , the series sparked a debate about the extent to which high-quality productions are still possible on German television.

action

The story of In the Face of Crime consists of several storylines that are interwoven and condense towards the finale. The Berlin police officer Marek Gorsky, the son of Latvian-Jewish immigrants, and his colleague Sven Lottner from East Berlin investigate in the milieu of the Russian mafia . Gorsky cannot forget that his brother was murdered ten years ago and that the perpetrator was never caught. As a police officer, Gorsky is badly regarded in his family and has a hard time of conscience because his sister Stella is married to the criminal Mischa. Misha, one of the established godparents in the capital's Russian milieu, has to fight off competition from Andrej - a climber who is increasingly challenging Misha and his group for the terrain.

The clashes between the two clans and their respective brigades are a fundamental element of the plot. Another important main strand is dedicated to the fortunes of Jelena and Swetlana, two Ukrainian women who are lured to Berlin and forced into prostitution there. When Gorsky and Lottner try to find the fugitive Mafioso Sokolov, they not only get in the way of two corrupt Berlin LKA officials, but also cross the paths of the two Ukrainians. The looming relationship between Gorsky and Jelena, which becomes closer in the course of the plot, is already hinted at in the opening credits of the series, a dream-like underwater sequence. Gorsky's search for his brother's murderer is the common thread of the plot, which is repeatedly deepened by figure drawings and detailed representations of the milieu . Likewise the police work , the aim of which is to arrest the gangs and their backers. When Gorsky and Lottner finally locate an illegal cigarette factory in the Brandenburg province, the end of the showdown between the police and gangsters.

Type of representation

Although conceived as a miniseries , Imicht des Verbrechens follows the dramaturgy of conventional feature films or classic TV series. There are no series-typical individual episodes; the plot is built up, developed further and finally ends in the finale. The epic form of the staging was rated as unusual - for example the long milieu drawings such as a 20-minute sequence with a Russian birthday party in Misha's local "Odessa". In order to depict the different milieus - here that of the Eastern European gangs, there that of the investigating LKA investigators - as realistically as possible, many dialogues are held in Russian or Yiddish and are translated using subtitles. The milieu drawings also relate to the locations where the series takes place - the Russian nouveau riche milieu in the Berlin districts of Charlottenburg (nickname since the Russian emigration wave in the early 1920s : “Charlottengrad”), Westend and Halensee , the investigators' petty-bourgeois residential areas and finally the Ukrainian and Belarusian countryside. As a reminiscence of the 1970s favored by Graf , some stylistic peculiarities apply: scenes mounted side by side using the split-screen method, the renunciation of fashionable color effects and shaky hand-held camera pans, built-in retrospectives with hard, sometimes unreal contrasts, rapid zoom settings and dull, driving beats for background music.

Two other features that have been highlighted in many reviews are the unusually realistically drawn milieu of organized gang crime and the associated drastic nature of individual scenes. The police officers, for example, all speak Berlin-style street jargon. The drama is promoted, among other things, by scenes that serve more to draw the mood than to advance the plot. Typical is a scene in a large Berlin disco in which visitors are given vodka and then shaken - a practice that is supposed to increase the effect of the alcohol. Other scenes explicitly cast a spotlight on the world of the Russian gangs, or the family from which Gorsky and his sister come. In the first episode, for example, Stella describes the control performance to her brother, which she regularly performs as the nominal owner of the "Odessa". Other scenes bring the bandits' petty-bourgeois family ideas into the foreground - for example, when a member of one of the brigades promises the police officers to testify if they arrange a meeting with his girlfriend in return.

Filming and production

The originator of the idea is not certain. Rolf Basedow, who wrote the script, named Marc Conrad, the managing director of the production company Typhoon AG , as the author in an interview . During his year-long research on the background of Eastern European gang crime, Basedow was able to build heavily on the material that he had compiled for an earlier Graf production ( Hotte in Paradies ) and that in turn was heavily based on the milieu knowledge of Steffen Jacob, the great Charlottenburg neighborhood.

The series was commissioned by WDR ; The broadcasters Bayerischer Rundfunk BR, ARTE , SWR, NDR and ORF were also involved as an institution . According to Dominik Graf, the project was only possible thanks to the committed support of all the TV editors and station officials involved . Nonetheless, massive problems arose during production. During the shooting, the factory inspector appeared on the set. Suspected reason: some employees who complained about the 18-hour shooting days being too frequent. The production company Typhoon AG, led by Marc Conrad , eventually had to go into bankruptcy during post-production . In the end, it was completed with funds from the ARD broadcasters . According to those involved, the causes of this development lie in the different interests. While director Graf refused to do without agreed script scenes for quality reasons, the production company emphasized the material and financial constraints to which it was subject - that without overtime, for example, complex projects could generally not be realized. After the premiere, the production turbulence in the series was also problematized by the press. Alluding to the flopped at the box office monumental Western Heaven's Gate by Michael Cimino called Spiegel Online the series as the "Heaven's Gate of public service broadcasting" .

In terms of numbers, in the face of the crime, after completion, contained 10 episodes, around 500 minutes total length, almost two years of production time, around 150 speaking roles, around 30 character roles and a multiethnic figure and actor ensemble. The costs amounted to around 10 million euros. The main roles were partly filled with well-known actors; Max Riemelt as the police officer Marek Gorsky, Ronald Zehrfeld as Gorsky's colleague Sven Lottner, Marie Bäumer as Gorsky's sister and Mischa's wife, and Mišel Matičević as the clan godfather, Mischa. In addition, there were less well-known actors, some of whom came from Eastern European countries, such as Alina Levshin , Katja Nesytowa , Georgii Povolotskyi , Marko Mandić and Vladimir Burlakov . Russian language dialogue coach was Olga Volha Aliseichyk ; participating editors were Wolf Brücker and Stephanie Heckner, producers on the part of the production company Kathrin Bullemer. Michael Wiesweg was the cameraman; the soundtrack came from Florian von Volxem and Sven Rossenbach, with whom Graf had already worked at Hotte im Paradies . The documentation of the shooting, which ARTE first broadcast on May 11, 2010, was filmed by the director and former student Dominik Grafs Johannes F. Sievert .

Performances

The series was first performed at the Berlinale 2010 . The premiere took place in Berlin's Delphi cinema on the occasion of a special screening as part of the International Forum of Young Films in two blocks of four hours. The first broadcast on ARTE ran in April and May 2010. In October and November 2010, the first broadcast the ten episodes of the series. After the ratings of the first five episodes disappointed with an average of 2.11 million viewers and a market share of 8.1 percent, ARD changed the broadcast schedule and did not place the last episode individually, but after episodes eight and nine. The approach has been heavily criticized by some media. The Süddeutsche Zeitung, for example, wrote: “When you look at the reflexes shown by fee-financed German television, you can always see a lack of imagination. Question: What do ARD managers, for example, do when a very good, special, rarely uncompromising series does not attract so many viewers? Answer: You either change the slot or make sure that the end comes sooner than planned. ” ARD program director Volker Herres, on the other hand, defended the decision and described the series as outstanding - even if it did not achieve the quota that one would have wished for .

In addition to the approximately half-hour-long making-of documentary film broadcast by ARTE, a 400-page workshop book was published by Alexander Verlag , which was also edited by Johannes F. Sievert and which contains numerous interviews and other texts as well as pictures from the shoot. At about the same time, the DVD for the series was released in November 2010, which contains the making-of as bonus material. After the broadcast ended, there were only vague statements about a possible continuation of the story. ARD program director Herres did not consider this to be ruled out in principle. However, he said that there were conditions for this; Among other things, he listed the different FSK releases of the first season as problems relevant to the broadcasting slot. Screenwriter Rolf Basedow and director Dominik Graf also made positive comments about a sequel to In the Face of the Crime.

criticism

Even during its premiere at the Berlinale in February 2010, the miniseries received a very good response from the press. The FAZ highlighted the unusual dimensions of the production and, in addition to the story, praised the coherent play of the actors involved. In the broadcast months of April (broadcast by ARTE) and October 2010 (broadcast by ARD), the reporting increased. Almost all of the major newspapers and weekly magazines addressed In the Face of Crime in one way or another. The online information service Perlentaucher summed up in a summary that seldom had so much been written about a German series. Many of the reviews drew comparisons with other series. In addition to the US series The Wire and The Sopranos , the award-winning ZDF series KDD - Criminal Continuous Service was repeatedly mentioned as an equivalent reference . Some reviewers even compared In the Face of the Crime with Francis Ford Coppola's epic film The Godfather .

In the face of the crime was rated positively, in some cases outstanding, in the FAZ, the world , the mirror , the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Tagesspiegel , the daily newspaper , the Frankfurter Rundschau , the time , the Friday , the Jungle World and the online Telepolis magazine . The FAZ called the series "exciting cinema, shot for television", a "stroke of luck for the audience" and a "bravura piece" . Die Zeit spoke of a "milestone in German TV history". The daily newspaper stated in an article headline "Moments of dreamlike intensity". The star wrote: “Graf and his long-time congenial author Rolf Basedow braided numerous narrative threads, threads of fate and episode loops into a shimmering fabric, pulled them together and delivered a density that was previously hardly seen. Every character - from the little Mafia bride with a shopping craze, to two dumb policemen who lock themselves out on the balcony during a house search for fear of a fighting dog, to the fat businessman who enjoys naked women shooting clay pigeons - drives the story forward perfectly cast and so finely worked out that it looks playful again. ” On the occasion of the first broadcast, the world summed up succinctly: “ The Russian mafia has never been as cool as with ARTE ”.

In addition, some media criticized details; a few even rated the series as a failure. The weekly newspaper Der Freitag and the Frankfurter Rundschau criticized certain aspects such as the credibility of the dialogues or technical inconsistencies within the story. FR author Kira Frenk found the dialogues to be quite clichéd and addressed them in an ironic gloss. Quote: “In Dominik Graf's Russian mafia crime thriller 'In the face of crime' there are many beautiful pictures and sex for three under the parachute. But for all the aesthetics - the dialogues in particular provide the highlights. "

The press coverage was flanked by numerous interviews and background reports. Interviews with Dominik Graf were published by Zeit , Spiegel Online , Deutschlandfunk and epd medien, among others . Interviews with other participants such as the scriptwriter Rolf Basedow or the project manager Kathrin Bullemer appeared on stern.de , in the daily newspaper, the Tagesspiegel and the music magazine Spex . The rescheduling of individual broadcasting dates by ARD and the making-of book by Johannes F. Sievert published in November 2010 caused additional media coverage.

Awards

  • 2010: German television award as best multi-parter
  • 2010: German television award in the category Special Achievement Fiction to the actors ensemble from In the Face of Crime: Marie Bäumer, Vladimir Burlakov, Alina Levshin, Marko Mandić, Mišel Matičević, Katharina Nesytowa, Max Riemelt and Ronald Zehrfeld
  • 2011: Grimme Prize in the fiction competition to Rolf Basedow (book), Dominik Graf (director), Michael Wiesweg (camera), Claudia Wolscht (editor), Max Riemelt, Ronald Zehrfeld, Mišel Matičević, Marie Bäumer (representation) and Wolf- Dietrich Brücker (representative for the editorial team) 
  • 2011: Nomination for the Golden Camera in the category Best German Actor: Max Riemelt
  • 2011: Bavarian TV Prize to Dominik Graf for directing Im Visicht des Verbrechens

List of episodes

The episodes last about 50 minutes.

  1. Berlin is paradise
  2. Where we are is in front
  3. The raid
  4. The betrayal
  5. Only honest love is good love
  6. Roses fall from the sky
  7. Who is afraid loses
  8. What does Berlin cost?
  9. You get what you deserve
  10. Everything has it's time

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Johannes F. Sievert , Dominik Graf : In the face of crime. TV work using the example of a series. Alexander Verlag, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-89581-221-7
  2. ↑ Christian Junklewitz: “In the face of the crime”: Interview with Basedow and Graf. In: serienjunkies.de. October 22, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Jan Starnberg: The all-knowledge-Woller. Rolf Basedow, screenwriter, researches the inner workings of the Mafia and the police like no other. In: Märkische Allgemeine Online. October 22, 2010, archived from the original ; Retrieved January 15, 2012 .
  4. ↑ Christian Buß : From bulls and other pigs. In: Spiegel Online . April 27, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012 .
  5. ↑ Christian Buß: Heaven's Gate and Hell's Gate. In: Spiegel Online . October 22, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012 .
  6. ↑ Julian Hanich: A city is looking for a few murderers. In: Der Tagesspiegel Online. February 23, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012 .
  7. ↑ In the Face of Crime: The Making-Of. Official website of the documentation. (No longer available online.) In: Arte.de. May 7, 2010, archived from the original ; Retrieved July 15, 2010 .
  8. ↑ TV series celebrates its cinema premiere. In: n-tv.de . February 16, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012 .
  9. ↑ Christopher Keil: Quick end for "In the face of crime". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung (sueddeutsche.de). November 11, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012 .
  10. ↑ a b Manuel Weis: Graf Series: Is it possible to continue? In : quotemeter.de . November 25, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012 .
  11. ↑ Thomas Groh: "In the face of crime". In: Pearl Divers . April 28, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012 .
  12. ^ Ester Buss: The Sopranos of Berlin. Dominik Graf tells a mafia epic from the capital on German television - and does everything right. In: Jungle World Edition April 15, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012 .
  13. ↑ Sophie Albers: "In the face of crime". ARD epic: "The Godfather" of Berlin. In: stern.de . October 22, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012 .
  14. ↑ Crass, not quantity , David thought, taz.de 27 April, 2010
  15. ↑ Russians, Jews, Mafia and the violence in Berlin , Rüdiger Suchsland, Telepolis , April 27, 2010
  16. ↑ Berlin, this is paradise , Verena Lueken, FAZ.net from February 19, 2010
  17. ↑ Pure feelings, pure violence , Jochen Hieber, FAZ.net of April 27, 2010
  18. ↑ With the Russians there is this pride , Katja Nicodemus and Christof Siemes in conversation with Dominik Graf, Die Zeit , accessed on April 28, 2010
  19. ↑ Moments of dreamlike intensity , Ekkehard Knörer, daily newspaper from February 20, 2010
  20. ↑ ARD epic “In the face of crime”: “The godfather” of Berlin , Sophie Albers, stern.de , October 22, 2010
  21. ↑ The Russian mafia has never been as cool as on Arte , Holger Kreitling , Welt Online, April 27, 2010
  22. ↑ What cannot be seen from Berlin , Barbara Schweizerhof, Der Freitag Online, April 26, 2010
  23. ↑ The next time without sound , Kira Frenk, Frankfurter Rundschau , April 28, 2010
  24. ↑ "With the Russians there is this pride" , interview with Dominik Graf, Zeit Online, April 28, 2010
  25. ^ "A sandbox game" , interview with Dominik Graf, epd medien , issue no. 32 of April 28, 2010
  26. ^ The series on the law ( Memento from December 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), conversation on the production between Kathrin Bullemer, Christian Junklewitz and Orkun Ertener, Spex , April 27, 2010
  27. ↑ Grimme-Preis Fiktion 2011 ( Memento from March 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on March 16, 2011
  28. ↑ Reasons of the jury ( Memento from September 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on March 16, 2011