Deutschland 83

[lxmmy]

Set in a divided Germany in 1983, during a peak period for Cold War tensions between East and West. Martin Rauch, a wide-eyed 24-year-old East German soldier plucked from obscurity, goes undercover as a West German soldier for the East Germany Secret Service. The 24 year old East German border guard is forcibly recruited by his government to pose as an assistant to a prominent West German official in order to gather intelligence regarding US plans to defend the West from Soviet aggression. Hiding in plain sight in the West German army, he must gather the secrets of NATO military strategy. Everything is new, nothing is quite what it seems and everyone he encounters is harboring secrets, both political and personal.

Interesting look back to the height of the cold war, taking place mostly in West Germany, but from an East German perspective. Spying under duress, partly out of conviction, partly for personal reasons, this young East German is at the epicenter of the mounting arms race. There is a mix of very real fear of their people being in danger, but also a questioning of both ideologies. Produced in Germany and spoken in German, with English subtitles.

Series begins tonight on Channel 4, 9pm. Episodes to be shown every week on Sunday. (UK)

 

[polysmut]

I've just caught up on the first three episodes of this & looking forward to seeing the fourth next week.

 

[eran0004]

This is my favourite series on TV right now! I was caught already at the title sequence.

There has been a lot of good TV series from Germany in the past few years. Weissensee, Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter, Tannbach and now Deutschland 83. And they're all set during the Cold War.

Edit: Actually, Unsere Mütter... is set during the WWII, and Tannbach is from the end of the war to the beginning of the cold war.