Trepalium - city without a name

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Television series
German title City without a name
Original title Trepalium
Country of production France
original language French
Production
company		 Kelija ( Katia Raïs ), Arte France
length 52 minutes
Episodes 6th
genre Thriller / dystopia
Director Vincent Lannoo
idea Sophie Hiet , Antarès Bassis
music Thierry Westermeyer
camera David Cailley
First broadcast 02/11/2016 and 02/18/2016 on Arte
German-language
first broadcast		 02/11/2016 and 02/18/2016 on Arte
occupation

Trepalium is a dystopian mini television series by Sophie Hiet and Antarès Bassis , which was broadcast simultaneously by Arte France and Arte Germany on February 11 and 18, 2016 (three episodes each). The series addresses the social status of work . The French series title is also derived from the etymological proximity of the French word travail for work to agony, pain and the three-pronged ancient torture instrument “tripalium” (handed down as “trepalium”), with which rebelling slaves were punished.

action

A big city at the end of the 21st century. After decades of crisis, work has become a rare and diminishing commodity. Only 20% of the population have a job, 80% are unemployed. The unemployed have been banished to the zone, separated from the city by a wall and are struggling to survive. The city is divided into "the south", in which the privileged live, and the "zone" of the "idle", also known as "Aso" or "Zoni".

With the kidnapping of Labor Minister Monroe Moretti, which has already been going on for a year, the underground militants can reach a compromise in negotiations with his wife, Prime Minister Nadia Passeron, to which she feels compelled, also with a view to the relationship with the World Bank, which has to grant further funding Made reforms in the "zone" dependent. In exchange for the release of the labor minister, the government has launched the “Solidarity Centers” program, according to which 10,000 “idle people” are allowed to leave the zone during the day to work in the houses of the well-to-do, although they are not used in the southern part of the city.

Izia Katell lives with her son Noah in the apartment of Lisbeth Richard and her husband Jeff. Her son's father, Ethan, left her when she was pregnant and has been fighting on the side of the rebels ever since. Izia is chosen to do household chores for the Garcia family in town. Ruben Garcia and his wife Thaïs work at the headquarters of the water company Aquaville. Her daughter Maël stays at home alone and is studying for a school entrance exam. Jeff Richard is also one of the lucky ones who is allowed to work on the other side of the wall for a fee. As an “advisor” to the Prime Minister, he is supposed to make the solidarity program attractive to the population.

analysis

In the totalitarian world of the series, work and performance alone determine the value of a person. In the meantime, work is the criterion for participation in social resources and economic prosperity, but at the same time - as the original title suggests - a torture, since anyone who does not meet the expectations can expect to be deported to the zone.

In the southern city of those who work in luxury, the ice-cold and callous maxim of productivity and usability, a rigid surveillance system, naked Darwinism , a "murderous elimination match" prevail . Nobody can be sure of their privileges .

In the “zone”, hermetically separated from the south city by a wall, the “inactive” live in slum-like conditions. Inadequate water supply, homelessness, drug addiction, brutality and violence, but also rebellion determine the situation in the ghetto. On the other hand, human closeness and solidarity can be found in the “zone” and only in exceptional cases, as a kind of failure, in the southern part of the city.

In this way, the series openly refers to the barracks during the Nazi era or to the Warsaw Ghetto and thus also to the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto , in that the zone residents are disinfected, their heads are shaved and an identification number is tattooed on their arm. the phrase “ work makes you free ” is used, and a resistance group is formed in the underground of the “zone”.

Against this background, the series leads the protagonists through a game of intrigue about power, recognition, espionage, social and personal dramas and relationships.

Remarks

  • In the opening credits, the living conditions shown below and characterized by misery, alienation and disenfranchisement are preceded by a quote from Ray Bradbury . This directs the view to the second level of action, that of the individual and his ability to trust and courage for the future.

«Il faut sans cesse se jeter du haut d'une falaise et se fabriquer des ailes durant la chute. »

"You have to throw yourself incessantly from the cliff in order for a wing to grow"

- Ray Bradbury :
  • Even before the official first broadcast on Arte , the series or parts of the series were shown to the public at the Festival de la fiction TV de La Rochelle in September 2015 and in Portugal on RTP2 in January 2016.
  • In the radically conceived two-part class society , the division of society on the one hand into people who are given all rights and on the other hand robbed of their essential rights, it is a frequently used framework for criticizing the prevailing or threatening social conditions in the future. For example in HG Wells The Time Machine , one of the first novels of the genre dystopia , or in the American television series The Handmaid's Tale - The Maid's Report .

music

Thierry Westermeyer composed and recorded the music . The original soundtrack was released on CD on January 29, 2016.

criticism

  • Thomas Andre sees through the plot of the discussion since the 1990s social problem of the fear of losing pointed and said on February 10, 2016 Hamburger Abendblatt : "On a harshly lit stage sets, the city with no name 'nothing in the limelight as the permanent fear of losing the Middle class in countries like France or Germany. ”The series was successful and staged the“ what if ”thought game in a sophisticated way.
  • Dr. Heike Hupertz sees in the FAZ on February 11, 2016 clever points of contact on topics "that concern us socially and politically - from the fashionable self-optimization mania to the refugee crisis" . In referring to the National Socialist barracks , she sees “a brutal and questionable association” that harbors “the danger of playing down the Holocaust ”. The series seems oppressive because it “seems to be only one step away from the past and the future. And in the form of a dark scenario negotiates what is non-negotiable: human dignity ”.
  • For Katharina Dockhorn , too , the socially critical aspect of the series is in the foreground in her review of February 11, 2016 on RP Online . The film explores the question of "how many unemployed a society can bear". The foreclosure answer given in the film seems like a horror vision, suggesting "it is already in many cities in South America, Africa or Asia and could soon become a reality".
  • Dr. Harald Keller sees in his contribution from February 11, 2016 in the FR that the series is able to convince as a gloomy outlook, but the “thriller plot suffers from too many coincidences and overly obvious constructs”. A dramaturgical flaw is that Izia ( Léonie Simaga ), who has lived in the Zone all her life, finds her new role with the right social behavior all too easily and “only notices when she carelessly shows the code on her wrist , who identifies her as a zone resident ”. Such technical deficits "lose some persuasive power". He positively notes that although the series is set in the future, "it should be understood without further ado as a commentary on the present and critical intervention", which "unfortunately most of the younger German TV series are missing".
  • The series received 6.5 out of 10 stars on IMDb .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ TRAVAIL: Etymology de TRAVAIL. In: CNRS (Center National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales). Retrieved August 29, 2018 (French).
  2. ↑ a b travailler - Wiktionary. In: Wiktionary - The free dictionary. Retrieved August 30, 2018 .
  3. ↑ tripalium - Wiktionnaire. In: Wiktionnaire - Le dictionnaire libre. Retrieved August 29, 2018 (French).
  4. ↑ a b Thomas Andre: "City without a name": In the ghetto of the useless. In: Hamburger Abendblatt. Zeitungsgruppe Hamburg GmbH, February 10, 2016, accessed on August 29, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Kelija | Trepalium. Accessed August 29, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b Dr. Heike Hupertz: “City without a Name” series: The future looks bleak. In: FAZ.NET. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH, February 10, 2016, accessed on August 29, 2018 .
  7. ↑ ( http://evene.lefigaro.fr/citation/faut-cesse-jeter-haut-falaise-doter-ailes-durant-chute-11580.php )
  8. ↑ Trepalium | Extra | RTP. In: RTP Extra. Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, January 11, 2016, accessed August 30, 2018 (Portuguese).
  9. ^ Trepalium - Thierry Westermeyer. Retrieved August 30, 2018 (fr-fr).
  10. ↑ Katharina Dockhorn: "City without a name" - vision of a world without employment. In: rp-online.de. Rheinische Post Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, February 11, 2016, accessed on August 30, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Dr. Harald Keller: "City without a Name", Arte: The Zonis are planning the uprising. In: Frankfurter Rundschau. February 11, 2016, accessed August 30, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Trepalium. In: IMDb. Retrieved August 30, 2018 .