The Widow

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Television series
German title The Widow
Original title The Widow
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English , French , Swahili
year 2019
Production
company		 Two Brothers Pictures
length 45 minutes
Episodes 8 ( list )
genre Thriller, drama
Director Samuel Donovan (Ep. 1–4) ,
Oliver Blackburn (Ep. 5–8)
script Harry Williams ,
Jack Williams
production Emma Pike ,
Eliza Mellor
music Dominik Scherrer
camera Stuart Howell (Ep. 1–4) ,
John Lee (Ep. 5–8)
Initial release March 1, 2019 on Prime Video

First publication in German		 March 1, 2019 on Prime Video
occupation

The Widow (English for The Widow ) is a British television miniseries from 2019 produced on behalf of the streaming portal Prime Video ( Amazon ) and the British television channel ITV . It tells of the British ex-officer Georgia (played by Kate Beckinsale ), who thinks she recognizes her husband, who was officially killed in a plane crash in the Congo three years ago, in a news article and is now traveling to Africa herself in search of him. Other leading roles are played by Alex Kingston , Babs Olusanmokun , Charles Dance , Luiana Bonfim , Ólafur Darri Ólafsson and Jacky Ido .

Outside the UK, Amazon released the series on March 1, 2019 via subscription video-on-demand on Prime Video.

action

Episodes 1 to 4

Georgia Wells is a young British ex-military officer who attempted suicide two years ago because of the sudden death of her baby. Her husband Will works for the British aid organization DRC AID , which operates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo . One day a plane crashes over the jungle on a domestic flight from Goma to Kinshasa . According to official information, he and most of the other 80 passengers die.

The main story begins about three years after the crash. Georgia learns of the violent riots in Kinshasa from television and sees a man from behind in the footage who looks very much like her husband, who had been believed dead for three years. So she flies to Kinshasa and begins to look for Will together with the local Emmanuel Kazadi, who lost his then pregnant wife Gaëlle in the plane crash. To do this, they are following the trail of "Mr. Tequila ”well-known South African Pieter Bello, who can be seen on the TV recordings armed with the alleged will. Georgia's conviction that Will is still alive grows when a rental car is anonymously brought to her, in which she finds Will's invitation to “Go Home”. A little later, Emmanuel dies in front of Georgia by a car bomb placed in the car that she believes was aimed at her. While Will can be smuggled across the border into Rwanda from the DR Congo , Georgia flies to Goma on the Rwandan border. Judith Gray, the head of DRC AID , accompanies them there and only now informs them that Will probably had a secret love affair with the wife of a Congolese general before he disappeared. Georgia accompanies three members of a medical aid organization to the area in South Kivu , which the May-May militia also controls with child soldiers , where Bello's trail leads them. Georgia can track Bello in a government-owned coltan mine, which he had raided with May-May shortly before.

Meanwhile, in Rotterdam, the blind Icelander Ariel Helgason befriends the blind woman Beatrix, whom he tells that he lost his sight as a passenger when the plane crashed in the Congo three years ago. When Beatrix discovers a contradiction in his testimony, Ariel reveals to her that the official cause of the crash, a technical defect, was wrong and that it was actually a bomb that caused the crash: She was in a laptop that a pregnant woman had taken on board. Another woman, Dominique, helped him escape from the crash site. After he had recognized the military officer in a newspaper article who had given the pregnant woman in Goma the bag with the laptop, he came to the conclusion that the cause of the crash had been covered up and Dominique was probably killed - information that he has since been incognito for self-protection has kept. In Rotterdam, Martin Benson, Georgia's friend from the military secret service, turned to him for help about the plane crash after Georgia had asked Benson for help in finding Will. Benson learns something from him about the military officer he had once seen at Goma airport. Ariel offers Benson to travel to the Congo to identify the military officer there based on his voice, which he has memorized, and to convict him as the murderer of the crash victims.

Episodes 5 through 8

In a flashback to seven years earlier, it becomes clear how Judith Gray falls for an inheritance sneak shortly after her mother's death and loses a lot of money in the process. Bitter about the heartlessness and lack of money, she agrees to cooperate with the corrupt Air Force General Azikiwe in Kinshasa . Out of greed for profit, Azikiwe wants to smuggle coltan from a state-owned Congolese mine to Rwanda and sell it there tax-free. Gray is said to conduct regular smuggling trips, with help from Azikiwe's ally, the mercenary Pieter Bello.

Returning to Kinshasa in the present, Judith Gray is stabbed and seriously injured by Azikiwe's helper Sidney. Georgia, meanwhile, shoots Bello in an affect and, out of pity, takes the child soldier Adidja with her. After realizing that Judith Gray's name is in the call list on Bello's cell phone, she flies back to Kinshasa with Adidja. In Gray's house, Georgia meets Helgason and Benson, who tells her that Gray is dead. When Adidja realizes that Will is wanted, she mentions a village in the east of the country that she heard during a video call between Bello and Will. Georgia therefore goes there with Adidja, but without finding Will. Meanwhile, Benson identifies with Helgason Azikiwe as the wanted officer. Because Azikiwe sees Helgason again, he has Sidney murder Helgason.

Georgia, back in Kinshasa, and Benson confront Sidney with their conviction that he helped Bello turn on Azikiwe, take over the coltan mine, and murder Gray. In return, he names a place in Rwanda where Will is staying. When Azikiwe hears that Sidney has betrayed him, he shoots him. While Benson is looking for the runaway Adidja in Kinshasa, Georgia goes to Rwanda, where she finds Will. From him she learns how he met Bello through their mutual acquaintance, Gray, and how he gained his trust by showing him a way to increase his share of the earnings in the coltan smuggling. Azikiwe wanted to crash the plane just to get rid of a politician traveling in it who wanted to make it difficult for him to sell coltan in Rwanda. Despite being on the passenger list, Will did not board the plane in Goma because Bello had warned him not to. Will saw the politician at the airport and never identified himself as a survivor, because he saw his life in danger as an accomplice to Azikiwe's plan. Since then he has gone into hiding with Bello's help and was filmed inadvertently in Kinshasa after Bello gave him hush money in a bank there. Bello has begun defrauding Azikiwe because, recently HIV positive, he needed more money for medical expenses. Georgia is shaken to learn that Will has had a child with a local woman.

Meanwhile, Adidja returns to Gray's house. Azikiwe had Gray pronounced dead even though she was still alive. She has contact with Georgia via Bello's cell phone, who gives her Will's address and in return receives the whereabouts of Adidja, who was kidnapped by Gray. Gray gives the address to Azikiwe, who sends two men to Rwanda to murder Will, but the address turns out to be wrong. Georgia and Benson inform the survivors of the crash victims that Azikiwe is the culprit. With the resulting public protests in front of Azikiwe's house, Georgia moves Will to bring evidence against Azikiwe and Gray to court. The police then arrest Gray, and Azikiwe evades arrest by suicide. Back in Wales, Georgia adopts Adidja.

production

The series was shot in South Africa , among other places , but not in the main location of the Congo.

publication

It was originally announced that the series would premier in the UK on ITV television and appear in over 200 other countries on Amazon's VoD service Prime Video. Until March 1, 2019, when Amazon published the series outside the United Kingdom on Prime Video - including in Germany - the series had not yet been broadcast on ITV, and no corresponding date was known until March 4.

Episodes

No. German title Original English title
1 Mr. Tequila Mr. Tequila
2 The green lion Green Lion
3 The survivors The Survivors
4th Violet Violet
5 Lost Poteza
6th The spider and the web The Spider and the Web
7th Want Want
8th Nigel Nigel

criticism

Critics praised the series as entertaining as well as for show values, staging and technical implementation, but criticized the narrated story - not least because of the numerous subplot strands - as seeming too constructed and complained that the series primarily serves to showcase Kate Beckinsale. The critics of the US magazines The Atlantic and The Hollywood Reporter were not particularly impressed and called them predictable and ridiculous, respectively. Critics also criticized the image of Africa conveyed by the series, Doris Priesching, for example, called it stereotypical in the newspaper Der Standard , Sophie Gilbert from The Atlantic spoke of clichés in this context. In the FAZ , Oliver Junge criticized the fact that the African actors were incomprehensibly only in the second row. Robert Lloyd moved the series in the Los Angeles Times closer to a film about a white savior because of its focus on white characters in a non-white setting .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Oliver Jungs: The white woman in the dangerous jungle , in: FAZ from March 2, 2019, accessed on March 8, 2019
  2. ↑ Danielle Turchiano: Amazon and ITV Greenlight 'The Widow,' Starring Kate Beckinsale , in: Variety, January 3, 2018, accessed March 7, 2019
  3. ↑ Neela Debnath: The Widow on Amazon filming locations: Where was The Widow filmed? , in: Express of March 4, 2019, accessed on March 7, 2019
  4. ↑ Eric Leimann: Kate runs, Kate suffers, Kate fights , from: teleschau - the media service , published in: prisma , accessed on March 8, 2019
  5. ^ A b Sophie Gilbert: The Clumsy Predictability of The Widow , in: The Atlantic, March 3, 2019, accessed March 8, 2019
  6. ↑ Tim Goodman, 'The Widow': TV Review , in: The Hollywood Reporter , Feb. 27, 2019, accessed March 8, 2019
  7. ↑ Doris Priesching: Africa without amour: "The Widow" starts on Amazon , in: Der Standard from March 1, 2019, accessed on March 8, 2019
  8. ↑ Robert Lloyd: Review: Amazon's thrillers 'The Widow' and 'White Dragon' are potato-chip bingeable , in: Los Angeles Times on Feb. 28, 2019, accessed on March 8, 2019