“Sex,
drugs and jazz club hedonism:
Returning to the Weimar Republic in the
Autumn of 1929, ten months after the
turbulent events of the second series,
the death of a film star and corruption
are being investigated in the lavish,
multi-award winning hit German period
drama Babylon Berlin Series Three...” USUALLY
COUPLED WITH ROCK 'N' ROLL, sex and drugs is an accepted part of the Berlin
jazz club scene in the Weimar Republic of the 1920s in the critically-acclaimed
Sky Atlantic German drama Babylon Berlin, now in its third series.
Deeply affected by his experiences while serving with the Imperial German Army
in the Great War and now receiving help from a psychiatrist, Detective Inspector
Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch) has become addicted to morphine.
A
first class detective, the trauma of war and the tragedy of returning home without
his brother Anno — who is still missing, presumed killed — has left
Gereon unable to cope without support, suffering from PTSD and survivor's guilt.
He is on assignment from Cologne to tackle a criminal gang in Berlin.
“Exceptionally
thrilling
and fascinating,
Babylon Berlin
is superbly cast and
brilliantly showcases
the German capital
in all its
1929 glory...”
Gereon's
brother's wife Helga (Hannah Herzsprung), his secret lover, and son Moritz (Ivo
Pietzcker) live with Gereon. Moritz has joined Hitler Jugend and Helga, not
convinced Gereon cares enough for her, moves to an expensive hotel — but
who is paying?
In the Autumn of 1929 in Germany's Berlin, against a background of unlawful
financial activity, Gereon investigates a series of murders in the weeks leading
up to Black Friday's catastrophic stock market crash and its inevitable tragedies.
Gereon teams up with assistant detective Charlotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries),
who has ambitions to be the first woman in Homicide. Committed to her studies
and taking exams, she appears to be held back, despite being very adept at spotting
clues.
Charlotte and her sister Toni (Irene Bohm) live in a one-roomed bed-sit over
a bar, but they only have access to it at night, sharing with a man who sleeps
there during the day. Their elder sister, Ilse (Laura Kiehne), is losing her
sight, and Charlotte goes to work in the seedy Moka Efti club to earn money
to pay for her operation.
Heartless gangster and crime lord Edgar "The Armenian" Kasabian (Misel Maticevic),
owns the Moka Efti. He and his partner and close friend Walter Weintraub (Ronald
Zehrfeld), recently released from prison, have backed a new film, Demons of
Passion, being made at a Berlin studios. Walter has a sworn enemy in rival mobster,
Bela Grosztony (Alexander Hörbe).
Edgar is married to Esther (Meret Becker), a former actress who desperately
wants to return to acting again and covets the starring role in the film. She
is also keen to repair the broken friendship of the two men she loves; but Edgar
has a long memory.
The new film stars rising actress Betty Winter (Natalia Mateo) and her husband,
popular actor and occult enthusiast Tristan Rot (Sabin Tambrea), who appears
as a cloaked figure with a full face mask.
Betty is killed by a falling spotlight in an apparent accident, but it quickly
becomes a murder investigation. A figure dressed a similar costume to Tristan's
has been seen lurking around the set.
While Gereon investigates the murder, Charlotte's friend, and Walter's lover,
Vera Lohmann (Caro Cult) locks Betty's replacement Tilly Brooks (Gloria Endes
de Oliveira) in her dressing room. Vera takes the lead, not realising Tilly
has met a grisly end.
The Phantom, as he is known, is about to strike again, putting the lives of
Charlotte and Vera in danger and resulting in the arrest of chief suspect Walter
Weintraub, laying injured in a hospital bed.
Charlotte's schoolfriend Greta Overbeck (Leonie Benesch) faces execution by
beheading (the official death penalty method used at that time) for murdering
her employer, Jewish Social Democrat August Benda (Matthias Brandt), head of
the Berlin Political Police, and his child.
Desperate to save her, Charlotte enlists pro bono lawyer Hans Litten*
(Trystan Pütter) and they race against the clock to save Greta. But someone
is determined to silence her permanently.
Charlotte clashes with the supercilious but talented head of the Berlin Police
Records Department Leopold Ullrich (Luc Feit), whose desire for recognition
drives him to the brink of insanity.
Germany's master homicide detective Criminal Counsellor Ernst "Buddah" Gennat**
(Udo Samel) heads the Homicide Department investigating a tangled web of political
corruption. Dangerous, ambitious and untrustworthy, Political Police Counsellor
Oberst Wendt (Benno Fürmann) appears to be bulletproof.
Kaiser-supporting, anti SDP businessman Alfred Nyssen (Lars Eidinger) seeks
to profit from the predicted financial crash, earning respect instead of scorn
from his wealthy mother.
Critically acclaimed internationally, the multi-award winning hit German period
drama set in 1929 Babylon Berlin is, at 40 million dollars, Germany's
most expensively-produced drama about an exciting time in the movie industry
(with the arrival of talkies) while alongside the political upheaval the reality
of another war draws ever closer.
As political extremists gather momentum, National Socialism and Communism vie
with each other. Poverty exists alongside extreme wealth and illegal guns and
stolen gold are hidden in the city. Heartbreak and tragedies abound in this
unsettling time, moving towards the inevitable war. Who will live to tell the
tale?
Exceptionally thrilling and fascinating, Babylon Berlin is well cast
and brilliantly showcases the German city in all its 1929 glory. An incredible,
must-watch series with believable characters you won't want to stop watching.
Sung by Esther in the movie Demons of Passion, a song includes words
that sum up the tragedies in Babylon Berlin: "A wind of grief and sorrow
blowing".
Babylon Berlin also features: Christian Friedel as photographer Reinhold
Gräf; Godehard Giese as detective Wilhelm Böhm; Thomas Thieme as Police Chief
of Berlin Karl Zörgiebel; Ernst Stötzner as Major General Kurt Seegers, a member
of the Reichswehr's General Staff (to become Head of the Military); Saskia Rosendahl
as his daughter, Communist law student Marie-Luise "Malu" Seegers; Karl Markovics
as journalist Samuel Katelbach; Fritzi Haberlandt as boarding house owner Elisabeth
Behnke; Jördis Triebel as Communist Dr Völcker; Holger Handtke as Wegener; Jens
Harzer as Dr Anno Schmidt; Philip Hersh as Franz Krajewski; Jacob Matschenz
as Fritz Hockert/Richard Pechtmann; Julius Feldmeier as Otto Wollenberg/Horst
Kessler; Thorsten Merten as homicide investigator Henning; and Rudiger Klink
as homicide investigator Czerwinski. Annemarie Nyssen
Series Music: Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer; Cinematography: Bernd Fischer, Frank
Griebe and Philipp Haberlandt; Production: Michael Polle, Uwe Schott and Stefan
Arndt; Created, Written and Directed by Henk Handleoegten, Tom Tykwer and Achim
von Borries. Based on the novels of German author Volker Kutscher.
Courtesy of Acorn Media International, following its run on Sky Atlantic, Babylon
Berlin Series Three arrives on digital to download and keep on 11 April
2020 and on DVD on 13 April 2020. Also released is Babylon Berlin Complete Series
One to Three on 13 April 2020.
Babylon Berlin Series Three DVD — Certificate: 18 | Running Time: 540
Minutes on 2 Discs | Catalogue Number: AV3566 | RRP: £24.99.
Babylon Berlin Series Complete Series One to Three DVD — Certificate:
18 | Running Time: 1,260 Minutes on 6 Discs | Catalogue Number: AV3567 | RRP:
£39.99.
"Exceptionally thrilling and fascinating, Babylon Berlin is superbly
cast and brilliantly showcases the German capital in all its 1929 glory" —
****
Maggie Woods, MotorBar
"Lavish, epic, dizzyingly complex… as satisfying as anything I've seen" —
Vogue
"Plenty of contemporary resonance… even more fabulous debauchery and naughtiness…
stunning" — The Guardian
"Enthralling, epic… absorbing… brilliantly convincing… carefully crafted… will
keep fans hooked" ****
— Pick of the Day, Mail on Sunday
"Byzantine, chockablock with plot, twisty and propulsive… politically resonant
but historically removed, stylistic and melodramatic, endearing, bracing and
completely absorbing" — Vulture
*The fictional character Hans Litten is based on a real life lawyer
**The fictional character Ernst Gennat is based on a real director of
the Berlin criminal police
“Sex,
drugs and jazz club hedonism: