In the Belgian political crime series “Salamander”, a nerve-tickling game of cat and mouse develops between an outlawed investigator and his high-ranking opponents.
The plan is brilliant. One night a gang of gangsters break into the Brussels private bank Jonkhere and break into their lockers. Only selected safes that were previously marked with invisible ink by an accomplice. The criminals leave securities and everything else that could lead to their tracks, only taking precious stones, gold and, above all, sensitive documents with them. The gold can be melted down, and the documents can be used to extort consideration.
The family-run bank is a respected company. The customers hold high positions in business, politics, the military or belong to the royal family. And all of them have dark secrets that shouldn’t be revealed to the public. The owner of the bank knows that. And wisely refrains from informing the police.
“Salamander” (Arte): An investigator becomes suspicious
Almost a perfect crime, if the police informant André Strubbe (Jos Geens) hadn’t gotten wind of the matter and Paul Gerardi, played by Filip Peeters, who also works for German television, had briefed him from the Belgian Federal Police. In the German version of this Flemish series, Gerardi has the rank of “inspector”, a translation error. Either the original title “Inspecteur” should have been left or the German equivalent “Oberkommissar” should have been chosen.
Gerardi and his manager are skeptical. Strubbe’s tips have not had a good experience. But then the criminals commit a mistake and murder Strubbe in front of Gerardi’s eyes. When the act is downplayed, then even hushed up, Gerardi can no longer be stopped. But he has powerful opponents. The banker Raymond Jonkhere (Mike Verdrengh) lets his connections play, which extend to the highest positions in the Justice Department and into the secret service. Gerardi is to be stopped. And for this the conspirators use every means.
“Salamander” (Arte) is a political thriller with a historical background
Gerardi is suspended and compromised, but that only spurs him on. He wants to find the perpetrators, to arrest the backers and the schemers. At the same time, the outlaw is on the run from his colleagues and the bank robbers who do not stop at his family.
In twelve gripping episodes, author Ward Hulselmans and director Frank van Mechelen develop an exciting event based on a novel by Bavo Dhoge in “Salamander” (Arte), which leads from the crime of the street to the back room of power. A frequent issue in Belgium since the manhunt and other disturbing incidents in the proceedings against the murderer and sex offender Marc Dutroux between 1996 and 2004.
Arte announced the first season of the series “Salamander” (Arte), produced in 2012, as a first broadcast, incorrect because it was already on the German channel of Servus TV. The second season started in Belgium in 2018.
World successes from Flemings
“Salamander” was successful beyond its country of origin. The production was sold internationally, several countries including the USA are interested in the remake rights. It wouldn’t be the first US adaptation of a Belgian series. The series “Cordon” from 2014, which appeared almost visionary in times of the Covid pandemic, about the cordoning off of an Antwerp district after a deadly viral disease broke out, was called “Containment” in the US version (2016) and was shown in Germany on Prosieben .
Belgian film and television productions have been attracting international interest for a long time. At first glance, this is astonishing given a small country that is also divided into two language regions. In this country there has already been talk of the “Belgian serial miracle”, but ciphers like this and the overused “media revolution” divert attention from more complex contexts. In Belgium it was not miraculous forces at work, but primarily in the Flemish part of the country well thought-out, functioning funding institutions that have boosted the production of high-quality audiovisual productions and have made media companies there coveted cooperation partners.
The example of Belgium shows the deficits of the German columnist series reception quite well. False conclusions are drawn simply because the observation is not exclusively, but predominantly, based on the US industry. The dimension becomes clear when one looks at other cultural branches. A literary or art history that Europe largely spares? Unthinkable.
The German ZDF was also there
Classifications and evaluations are put into perspective when the view widens. If you know the Dutch three-part series “Mevrouw de Minister” from 2002, the innovative strength of the celebrated Danish political series “Borgen”, which emerged eight years later, is reduced. Anyone who knows the Belgian series “Stille Waters” (2001), which was broadcast on WDR television under the title “Dark Waters” in 2005, with the local actors Koen de Bouw and Jo De Meyere, who also played in “Salamander”, will be more receptive to the weaknesses of the over fee vaunted Scandinavian series “Commissioner Lund”.
To the broadcast
“Salamander”, from Thursday, April 22nd, 9:05 pm, Arte and in the Arte media library.
Belgian series run worldwide at festivals such as the Parisian “Séries Mania” or the “Festival de la fiction TV de La Rochelle” and are awarded prizes. Wherever creative and economic potential is gathered in such a noticeable degree, the international streaming providers Amazon and Netflix also act quickly. Both bought Belgian films and series in bulk. The series “Undercover”, conceived in Belgium, was initially planned as a co-production between the Belgian broadcaster Eén and the German ZDF. Netflix subsequently stepped in as a financier, but presented the series as “Netflix Original”. In 2020, “Into the Night” was the first Belgian Netflix in-house production. With “Ferry”, Netflix also commissioned a prequel for “Undercover” after it had developed into a cult series.
ZDF was there earlier. From 2017 it shot a remake of the crime comedy “Professor T.” in Antwerp in the original sets, in 2018 acted as co-producer of the imaginative crime series “24 Hours – Two Sides of Crime” and, according to the Dutch industry journal “View”, was an investor in “Tabula Rasa “(2017) and” Over Water “(2018). (Harald Keller)
