The director Julia von Heinz doesn’t do things by halves: Hannas Reise was a German-Israeli story in which every joke sat, and that means something in German cinema. The film adaptation of Hape Kerkeling’s bestseller I am then away was perfect mainstream cinema on an international level.
And tomorrow the whole world convinced as uncompromising reckoning with Germany’s oblivion of history. And now a »Christmas series« for ARD.
Institution Eldorado KaDeWe tells, as the name suggests, of the fate of the Berlin institution “Kaufhaus des Westens” and thus also of the fate of the Jewish Jandorf family. Department store owner Adolf Jandorf had realized his dream of a luxury department store in 1907. The shopping temple at Wittenbergplatz became one of the most popular addresses in the city. In 1927 Jandorf sold to also Jewish department store competitors (in the role of Hermann Tietz: Oliver Polak). Six years later it was expropriated by the Nazis.
Julia von Heinz’s series begins when Jandorf’s son Harry, traumatized and addicted to drugs, returns from the First World War and, with the help of his sister Fritzi, urges his father to modernize. After all, the Berlin of the Weimar Republic was the wildest, most liberal city in the world, where identity and sexuality were celebrated instead of negotiated. People soon realized that it was a dance on the volcano.
heart While father and son Jandorf actually lived, von Heinz invented strong characters – like the sister mentioned, but also the KaDeWe employee Hedi and her family. Fritzi and Hedi are the heart of the six-part series, which will be shown on December 27th in just under five hours in one go and can also be seen in the ARD media library.
The love story of the young women carries through the film and very explicitly shows the love of life and the hope for a free, open future for all people, no matter who they love. But the end of humanity is already heralded by the words and deeds of the steadily growing supporters of the Nazis. Insulting Fritzi with the words “not only a Jew, she is also a lesbian” is just the beginning.
love And so, while Fritzi and Hedi are allowed to experience the intoxication of love, father Jandorf fears for his life’s work and Harry fights with war demons and fights fraternal war with the accountant Georg appointed by his father, the country falls to those who think that there is a real life that excludes those who believe, love or live differently and therefore have no right to even exist.
This highly emotional portrait of a time goes through the head and heart at the same time. “The Shoah and homosexuality are both issues that keep cropping up in my personal life because of family members and close friends,” says director von Heinz in an interview with the Jüdischen Allgemeine.
Fleabag The great personal closeness helped a lot when telling the story. As well as the new, urgently needed openness of public law. As a big fan of Christmas series like Anna or Wilder Westen inclusive, she asked herself what kind of story young people would cheer for today. “I know what my daughter watches on Netflix and Amazon,” says the director.
Von Heinz had three role models: Fleabag, Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, all series that live in words and pictures of honesty, of saying and showing things, no matter how uncomfortable or revealing they are. Julia von Heinz is satisfied: »To say, we will broadcast all of this in one night and light this media campfire, around which everyone should please, because there is nothing else today. I think that’s really good! “Let’s see how far the TV country is.” Eldorado KaDeWe – Now is our time “- historical miniseries (6x 45 minutes) – runs on Monday, December 27th, from 8:15 pm, in the first and since December 20th in the ARD media library.
“Eldorado KaDeWe – Now is our time” – historical miniseries (6x 45 minutes) – runs on Monday, December 27th, from 8.15pm, in the first and since December 20th in the ARD media library.
In the run-up to the event, the first will show the 30-minute RBB documentary “Mythos KaDeWe – The Department Store of the West” by Dagmar Wittmers on December 26th at 7.40pm.
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