FunAstrology"Liberame - After the storm": Well-told series in the...

"Liberame – After the storm": Well-told series in the ZDF media library

Created: 7/30/2022 6:43 am

LIBERAME  Nach dem Sturm
From left: Ina Weisse, Emmanuel Ajayi, Johanna Wokalek, Tariq Al-Saies, Friedrich Mücke, Mohamed Achour, Kenda Hmeidan, Natalia Belitski, Shadi Eck, Mina-Giselle Rüffer. © ZDF/Aaron Foster

The ZDF series, camouflaged as a family drama, approaches your key question in attractively convoluted ways: How does Europe deal with the refugees?

Frankfurt – “Vacation on the mass grave”: The remark sounds more cynical than it is intended. Daniel wanted to express that he thinks a sailing trip in the Mediterranean Sea, where thousands have drowned in the last two decades, is quite questionable. He came along anyway, and the group around the Hamburg shipyard owner Jan Garbe (Friedrich Mücke) promptly came across a boat with refugees.

However, the event happened a few years ago. Only gradually does the screenplay (Astrid Ströher, Marco Wiersch) reveal what happened back then. This secrecy sometimes seems tedious, especially since the six-part ZDF series “Liberame – After the Storm” also jumps in time within the flashbacks, but it actually increases the tension. Because the events are told from different perspectives, there are always additions that give the story a surprising twist and reveal shocking truths towards the end, when things finally escalate. The background story in the present, on the other hand, develops more and more into a drama that is multifaceted, especially in emotional terms.

“Liberame – After the storm”: Very densely told series

At first glance, the Garbes look like a happy family of four: father, mother, two children. However, the beautiful appearance soon dissolves into pleasure: The shipyard is on the verge of bankruptcy, Jan is having an affair, and his wife Caro (Johanna Wokalek) confesses to him that after the sailing trip she has had sex with Daniel (Marc Benjamin ) had, the boyfriend of Jan’s sister Fiona (Natalia Belitski). To make matters worse, the sailing group faces a prison sentence: the two couples were traveling on Jan’s ship “Liberame” with their lawyer friend Helene (Ina Weisse).

One day a refugee boat crossed their route. Because the ship had an engine failure, they took it in tow. A storm has come up in the night; the next morning the boat was gone. Now one of the Syrian survivors accidentally recognized Jan. Taxi driver Ismail Sabia (Mohamed Achour) wants justice for the death of his drowned daughter and files a complaint; the group faces charges of failure to provide assistance. The investigation is eventually dropped, but that’s not the end of the story for Sabia, his brother Bilal (Tariq Al-Saies) and Nigerian Akono (Emmanuel Ajayi), who lost his father in the Mediterranean.

The series

“Liberame – After the storm”: From July 29 in the ZDF media library

Conceptually, the attraction of the series (director: Adolfo J. Kolmerer), which is very densely told despite a duration of 270 minutes, may lie in the nested structure, but its special quality results from the dilemma of the tour group, on which the flashbacks increasingly concentrate: as clear that the boat, completely overcrowded with 35 people of all ages, will drift helplessly on the sea, the quintet discusses how it should behave now; Jan’s radio call for help goes unanswered because the Italian coast guard seems to be deaf.

“Liberame – After the Storm”: How do you deal with refugees?

Under maritime law, the sailing community has a duty to help, but towing the boat into an Italian port would be aiding and abetting illegal immigration. For humanitarian reasons, leaving the refugees to their fate is out of the question. Bring mothers, children and the sick on board? Then the provisions would not be enough for everyone.

The microcosm thus perfectly reflects the European debate on how to deal with refugees, and many people would probably be happy if the “problem” vanished into thin air like the missing ship in the series. But now, years later, the survivors confront the circle of friends with the accusation that someone cut the tow. However, the script and direction refrain from telling the story as a thriller from now on.

“Liberame” (in the religious sense “Save Me”, so named after the name of the sailing yacht) remains a drama, especially since it finally turns out that everyone involved is keeping secrets. After the cinema comedies “Schneeflöckchen” and “Abikalypse” for ZDF, director Kolmerer recently shot a few episodes of the similarly intensive series “Sløborn” (2020) and now shows again how excellently he knows how to lead an ensemble. The pictures have cinema quality, the sea scenes after the capsizing of the refugee boat look oppressively real. The series is available in the ZDF media library. (Tilman P. Gangloff)

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