4 Blocks Deutscher Fernsehpreis Best Direction
Since its debut in 2017, Berlin gangster serial 4 Blocks has been pocketing awards and thrilling audiences. The TNT Serie drama has also shaken up the sometimes cosy globe of German goggle box.
4 Blocks tells the story of the Hamady criminal offense family, which is engaged in a bloody fight with the rival al-Saafi association for control of the drug merchandise in the Neukölln district of the metropolis.
At an early-evening screening in central London at the end of January, the RTS – in partnership with TNT Serie and Turner – celebrated the release of the show's second flavor.
The kickoff series launched on TNT Serie, a German pay-TV aqueduct that primarily airs drama and one-act series and is owned by Turner Broadcasting System Europe. Internationally, the drama is available on Amazon Prime Video; season ii was released on Amazon in December.
After the screening of the beginning 2 episodes of season ii, some of the key creative team were interviewed on stage past CNN International reporter Anna Stewart.
Anke Greifeneder, who is in accuse of original production at TNT Serie, explained that High german indie Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion had pitched her an idea for a drama virtually a Lebanese-German drug gang in Berlin.
Iii writers – Hanno Hackfort, Bob Konrad and Richard Kropf – "had done a lot of research with police force, judges and journalists, merely I wanted to [tell the story] from the angle of the clans. I wanted to know near their universe – it was a story that had not yet been told," she said.
The drama reflects the reality of life in Berlin's Neukölln commune, which contains the eponymous "four blocks" – a no-go area for constabulary, claimed Greifeneder.
Drug dealing and violence is but function – a significant part, admittedly – of four Blocks. "It is besides a family story, and the women have an important role," said Greifeneder. "To me, it was actually of import – and sometimes I had to button a piffling, I have to say – considering the main plot is about drugs and the daily life on the street, and and then the focus is on the men."
She noted that she is the only woman creative working on the serial – the other executive producers, writers and directors are all male person.
"I thought information technology was really important to run into their family side and how they relate to their wives. Family is such an important thing to these clans," she said.
Hannes Heyelmann, who is Managing Director of Turner in central and eastern Europe and likewise an executive producer on 4 Blocks, suggested that the depiction of an unknown Berlin was instrumental in the show'due south success.
"A lot of international audiences are tired of the aforementioned LA beach, the streets of New York and the Eiffel Belfry in Paris – they want to explore new cities and cultures," he said. "To couple this with a suspense-driven drama is a groovy mix. Information technology's a very authentic drama, which hasn't been done in this mode before.
"Some of the lead cast don't have traditional [acting backgrounds]," he added. Two of the main characters, Latif and Abbas Hamady, are played by actors – who are improve known as rappers in Federal republic of germany – Wasiem Taha, aka Massiv, and Veysel Gelin, aka Veysel.
The gangster story has received acclaim from German critics, winning Kida Khodr Ramadan, who plays clan head Ali "Toni" Hamady, the prestigious Grimme-Preis and Deutscher Fernsehpreis interim prizes. The show itself has won a clutch of awards, besides.
"In Federal republic of germany, it is astounding – last twelvemonth, it was the number-one bought serial on iTunes in Deutschland, beating all the American serial," said Heyelmann. The executive producer revealed that he has learnt a number of important lessons from the success of 4 Blocks: "Be daring and keep pushing the boundaries, considering in that location are then many series beingness produced in the U.s.a., and in Bang-up Great britain as well, that to stand up out from the crowd you need to be unlike."
"Fear is the worst enemy of creativity"
Greifeneder praised TNT Serie's owner, Turner, for the "creative liberty" it allows the channel. "Fear is the worst enemy of creativity," she argued.
Heyelmann likewise revealed that a "fully lip-synched dubbed version in English" would be available in February – to proficient-natured tutting from the audience. Unlike many European audiences, Brits remain wedded to subtitles.
Turner has ordered a third and final flavour of 4 Blocks, which starts shooting in the spring and will be directed by Özgür Yıldırım.
"It was very tempting to do it for ever," conceded Greifeneder. "That would be a very German thing to practise. We like security – we're the well-nigh over-insured people in the world." Only, she added, "we desire to end on a high note. It will be the tertiary and last series."
Yıldırım declined to give the audience any clues about the denouement of iv Blocks, other than promising to "be very honest" and "realistic". Greifeneder said: "It's non Game of Thrones, but some people are going to dice."
four Blocks was screened by the RTS and TNT Serie/Turner at the Soho Curzon cinema in central London on 23 January.
iv Blocks: The directors' take
Oliver Hirschbiegel shared directing duties with Özgür Yıldırım: the former directed the first three episodes and the latter the last four episodes of the seven-function 2nd flavor.
Although the leading characters are played by trained actors, many small-scale parts are filled by people with no acting feel. 'Half the people that you run across on screen are not actors – they grew up there and pretty much are what they are on screen in existent life. That's your research right there, every day of shooting,' said Hirschbiegel, who took an flat in Neukölln while he was prepping the series.
Hirschbiegel, who directed the Oscar-nominated historical drama Downfall, well-nigh the last days of Adolf Hitler in his Berlin bunker, was attracted to 4 Blocks by its 'rawness and actuality'. And, he added, it offered 'the opportunity to do, finally, something that I also wanted to do – dealing with gangsters'.
He had some other, rather more than personal, reason. Hirschbiegel had been something of a mentor – 'I had him under my wings' – to the managing director of the beginning serial, Marvin Kren. 'I gave him some communication and he proved very soon that he was a talent,' said Hirschbiegel. 'It was a sugariness thought to have over from my former pupil.'
Yıldırım, who has helmed the long-running German cop show Tatort, was fatigued to the subject matter of iv Blocks, which he described every bit 'about [Lebanese-German] family unit, religion and traditions – things most which a German audience has no idea. [With the] violence, it's a very interesting cocktail.'
Hirschbiegel enjoys working with other directors: "We worked very well together. I enjoy exchanging opinions and secrets with co-directors. It'due south e'er the textile and the characters that pretty much tell us, the directors, what to do with [a serial].… 'Directors and so add their personal fashion to the raw material.'
Source: https://rts.org.uk/article/4-blocks-creators-spill-secrets-making-drama
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