Sleeper Cell

Television series
German title	Sleeper Cell
Original title	Sleeper Cell
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Year (s)	2005-2006
length	60 minutes
Episodes	18 in 2 seasons
genre	Drama , thriller
music	Paul Haslinger
First broadcast	December 4th, 2005 on Showtime
German-language first broadcast	July 25, 2008 on RTL II
occupation
Michael Ealy : Darwyn al-Sayeed Oded Fehr : Faris "Farik" al-Farik Henri Lubatti : Ilija Korjenić Melissa Sagemiller : Gayle Bishop

Sleeper Cell (sleeper cell) is an American television series that originally on the cable transmitter December 2005 Showtime aired. So far, two seasons have been broadcast in the USA (ten and eight episodes of 60 minutes each). The series was received positively by the critics and nominated for an Emmy , among other things .

In Germany, the series was broadcast on RTL II from July 25, 2008 in double episodes; due to bad ratings, the series was postponed to midnight on September 3, 2008. The title of the series was supplemented by the subtitle "American Terror" in the second season.

action

Sleeper Cell is currently set in the American metropolis of Los Angeles . The Muslim Darwyn al-Hakim, who has just been released from prison, is recruited by the Islamist terrorist Faris “Farik” al-Farik for his “sleeper cell”: a terrorist cell whose members all have military experience, but behave like normal American citizens . Most of the time, the members of the cell follow a regular life and behave completely unsuspiciously - until they become active and strike. Darwyn soon gets to know the other members, including the American Tommy who has converted to Islam ; the former French skinhead Christian, who also converted, and the Bosnian Ilija, who have joined Farik for very different reasons. Farik himself keeps a low profile about the group's goals and only reveals information bit by bit. It soon becomes clear, however, that he is working with other groups and is planning a major attack in the United States. The charismatic but also completely unscrupulous Farik has set up a seemingly perfect disguise for himself: He poses as an American of Jewish faith who goes about his business successfully and trains baseball with children in his free time.

But Darwyn is not who he initially seems either. Darwyn al-Sayeed, as his real name is, is an undercover agent for the FBI who voluntarily went to prison to establish contacts with radical Islamist groups and to infiltrate a terrorist cell. His superiors are thrilled because they had never done anything like this before. The practicing Muslim Darwyn is, however, inwardly outraged by the abuse of the Koran by Farik and his backers for their goals. So in the fourth episode he tries (ultimately in vain) to prevent Farik from murdering an important and moderate Islamic scholar. He explains to his (first) manager at the FBI, Ray Fuller, that this is not just a war of terror. Rather, the war is raging within Islam too.

Darwyn tries again and again to pass information on to the FBI, but Farik's generally cautious and suspicious attitude makes this sometimes very difficult. In his private life, Darwyn has an affair with the single mother Gayle Bishop. The attack on a sports stadium planned by Farik ultimately fails and he himself is captured. Of the rest of the cell, apart from Darwyn, only Ilija survives.

In the second season, Darwyn comes into contact with another sleeper cell by chance, which he also infiltrates and even becomes its leader. His FBI liaison officer Patrice Serxner, who succeeded Ray Fuller, is murdered in Sudan . The new liaison officer is the inexperienced agent Warren Russell, who was only given his position because of good contacts. Meanwhile, Farik is still being held captive, interrogated and tortured by the Americans, without giving them any useful information. He later managed to escape from prison.

Type of representation

One basic attitude pervades all episodes of the series: Islam is not blamed for the acts of the terrorists. Rather, it shows how religion is instrumentalized for the political interests of individual extremists. The series thus paints a much more differentiated, seemingly realistic picture of the so-called “ war on terror ” than some comparable programs. In addition, stereotypes are deliberately broken. Farik's terrorist cell does not include mainly Arabs, but mainly Americans (including the blonde Tommy, who comes from a liberal family of professors) or Europeans. The attitude of the USA is also presented quite critically. For example, Darwyn's superior Fuller often reacts with incomprehension for his religion; in a later episode, the Afghan Khashul only becomes a terrorist after he has been radicalized by his unjustified arrest and its consequences.

criticism

The American university professor for mass communication Jack Shaheen examined in an analysis over 900 Hollywood films with regard to the use of anti-Arab clichés and summarized the result in the non-fiction book Reel Bad Arabs . The film Reel Bad Arabs by Sut Jhally was made based on this book . In connection with the premiere of this film, Shaheen heavily criticized the series Sleeper Cell : It was hate speech against Americans of Arab origin and a general suspicion was set against the Arab next door.

Episode list

DVD release

Germany

• Season 1 was released on April 2, 2009.
• Season 2 was released on April 8, 2010.

Great Britain

• Season 1 was released on September 18, 2006.

United States

• Season 1 was released on March 14, 2006.
• Season 2 was released on March 20, 2007.

Web links

• Sleeper Cell in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Overview at TV.com
• Criticism at Spiegel Online
• Presentation on RTL 2
• official homepage

Individual evidence

1. ^ Cast of Villains [1] William Booth, Washington Post 2007
2. ↑ Sleeper Cell - The first season on DVD . Amazon.de . Retrieved April 5, 2011.
3. ↑ Sleeper Ceel - The second season on DVD . Amazon.de . Retrieved April 5, 2011.
4. ↑ Sleeper Cell - Season 1 on DVD . Amazon.co.uk . Retrieved April 5, 2011.
5. ↑ Sleeper Cell - Season 1 . Amazon.com . Retrieved April 5, 2011.
6. ↑ Sleeper Cell - Season 2 . Amazon.com . Retrieved April 5, 2011.