New Herzkino series with Valerie Niehaus: 30 years later, Katharina suddenly meets her childhood sweetheart again. Can the mother of two let the past rest?
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“He was just there!” The former veterinarian Dr. Willi Hoffmann (Ernst Stötzner) across the floor – looking for the runaway rabbit. “I don’t know where is he?” Katharina (Valerie Niehaus) also goes to the dusty carpet to look for the four-legged friend. “If you see him, you have to grab him in a flash,” advises the old vet. Then suddenly a voice sounds that Katharina has not heard for many years. “Are you looking for this one?” It is Willi’s son Juri (Dirk Borchardt), who stands in front of her in the first episode of the new ZDF “Herzkino” series “Next Exit Luck” entitled “Juris Returns” with the animal in his arms .
The surprising encounter awakens memories – and feelings: It has been 30 years since Katharina and Juri tried to flee the GDR together. But at the fence at the Prague embassy shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Katharina couldn’t bring herself to follow her great love, as flashbacks to German history show. The two have not seen each other since then. Now they are facing each other, torn between their feelings and reason – you can hear it crackling directly.
But Katharina is absolutely convinced: “Earlier is over!” She is happily married, has two children and runs a kindergarten. How does the unexpected reunion fit into your concept of life? She would like to just forget about Yuri again. But something connects them: Juri’s father Willi, affectionately known by Katharina as the “commandant”. So far, she has taken care of the slightly demented but enterprising old man who clings to the basic values of the GDR and always runs around with a gun and his fur hat. Now Juri has come from Canada especially to help him.
The husband reacts calmly
To do this, however, he needs Katharina, who cannot escape her great childhood love either. This does not go unnoticed: Her husband Georg (Max Hopp) initially reacts to the unpleasant situation in a noticeably relaxed manner. What does a gathering mean 30 years after reunification? What happened during that time? And what future has a love that has been dormant for 30 years?
Director Francis Meletzky devotes herself to not only love, friendship and family, but also an important piece of German history in the new ZDF series “Next Ausfahrt Glück”. With the help of flashbacks and photos, Meletzky takes you back to the time shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Katharina’s and Juris love still existed. “The film thematizes the historical events in a normality that I usually miss. They are part of the German biography, but often come across with a very specific emphasis and are presented as particularly problematic,” explains Valerie Niehaus in an interview with the news agency teleschau. “I am delighted that we are telling the story of people who grew up in this biography and lead a completely normal, healthy life.”
Almost as if by the way, space is given to two other important topics. On the one hand, as a kindergarten director, Katharina is confronted with the problems of small children. In the first episode, a girl claims to be beaten by another child. But Katharina can neither observe physical violence nor detect any injuries. What’s behind the girl’s behavior? And what do your parents have to do with it?
On the other hand, Meletzky dedicates himself to dealing with a demented relative in a humorous and at the same time serious way. Books are piled up in Willis’ refrigerator, reminder notes are hanging on the walls of his apartment and he opens a can of dog food to eat. Now Juri has to take care of his father. “Unfortunately, I myself have experience with a father suffering from dementia, and the reality is far sadder – rarely as funny as it is with us,” says the lead actor Borchardt in an interview with ZDF. “Dementia is a terrible disease, and I take my hat off to all those affected. Nevertheless, humor should and must always be there. Yuri almost never loses it. And I try to do the same.”
The new ZDF series “Next exit luck” offers not only the tense love triangle between Katharina, Juri and Georg, but also an all-round cover about relevant everyday topics. “In our story there is dancing, living and aging, small and large children have their say, it’s about love in and for everyday life,” says leading actress Valerie Niehaus in an interview with ZDF.
So far, two parts of the new “Herzkino” series have been shot. After “Juris Returns”, the ZDF will show the second episode “Best Friends” a week later on Sunday, March 7th, 8:15 pm. The shooting took place under strict hygiene measures, as Niehaus told teleschau: “The conditions are of course significantly different from those under which we have worked so far. But as filmmakers we are used to making good films out of very uncomfortable situations.”
Source: teleschau – der mediendienst GmbH –
