Der gleiche Himmel (2017)

The Same Sky – a miniseries in three parts - is the English title of a historical drama which premiered on German television (ZDF) in 2017. 

The story is set in East and West Berlin in 1974 (during the Cold War). Here is some basic information aboutthis drama:

** Original German title: Der gleiche Himmel 
** Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel

** Writer: Paula Milne

** Soundtrack: German – no English subtitles!

** Released on DVD in 2017

** Run time: 3 x 92 minutes = 276 minutes

The cast includes the following:

** Tom Schilling as Lars Weber (a Stasi agent from East Berlin)
** Ben Becker as Ralf Müller (a West German citizen who works for the Stasi)

** Jörg Schüttauf as Gregor Weber (father of Lars)

** Godehard Giese as Conrad Weber (a school teacher in East Berlin) (Gregor’s brother)

** Anja Kling as Gita Weber (Conrad’s wife)

** Muriel Wimmer as Juliane Weber (the older daughter of Conrad and Gita)

** Stephanie Amarell as Klara Weber (the younger daughter of Conrad and Gita)

** Max Hopp as Wulf Dunst (Klara’s swimming coach)

** Sofia Helin as Lauren Faber (a systems analyst who works in West Berlin)

** Jascha Rust as Emil (Lauren’s son)

** Friederike Becht as Sabine Cutter (Lauren’s friend and colleague)

** Claudia Michelsen as Dagmar Cutter (Sabine’s mother)

** Steven Brand as Howard Cutter (a US intelligence officer who works in West Berlin) (Dagmar’s husband, Sabine’s stepfather)

** Hannes Wegener as Axel Lang (a school teacher in East Berlin)

** Daniel Zillmann as Tobias Preuss (a friend of Axel’s)

I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. Therefore I am not going to reveal too much about what happens in this drama. But I have to mention a few details in order to explain my rating.

This is a historical drama, i.e. a fictional story that is placed in a historical context. In this case, the historical context is East Berlin and West Berlin in 1974 (during the Cold War).

There are three topics in this drama. Each topic has its own story-line and its own gallery of characters:

# 1. Espionage – the main character is Lars Weber

# 2. Sport and doping – the main character is Klara Weber

# 3. The dream about (escaping to) the West – the main character is Axel Lang

The three story-lines are loosely connected and run parallel. Gregor (the father of Lars) and Conrad are brothers. Conrad is the link between the first and the second story-lines. Conrad and Axel are colleagues at the same school. Conrad is the link between the second and third story-lines.

About story # 1

Lars Weber is a so-called Romeo agent. He is sent to West Berlin. His task is to connect with Lauren Faber and seduce her. If he can manage this, he will ask her to tell him some of the secrets that she knows from her place of work, a US listening station in West Berlin.

About story # 2

Klara is a swimmer. Her couch says she has a good chance to join the Olympic team, but she must do a lot of training. If she does well, this will mean privileges for the whole family. Klara’s mother Gita supports this plan with enthusiasm, while her father Conrad is not so sure it is a good idea.

About story # 3

Axel is a teacher who is fed up with the East German propaganda. He dreams about the West. He wants find a way to cross the border and get to West Berlin.

What do reviewers say about this drama? On IMDb it has a rating of 75 per cent, which corresponds to 3.8 stars on Amazon. On the German version of Amazon there are at the moment more than 30 reviews of this product. The average rating is 3.8 stars.

The negative reviewers mainly complain about three points:

# 1. The director Oliver Hirschbiegel. They say he did a poor job here.

# 2. The writer Paula Milne. They wonder why ZDF hired a British writer who does not speak any German.

# 3. The ending. They say there is no real ending. When we get to the end of part three, the drama simply stops.

I agree with these points. I can add a few more:

# 4. A small group of people in East Berlin are trying to dig a tunnel that will run under the Berlin Wall from East to West. This notion is absurd for two reasons:

** There was no tunnel digging in 1974. Tunnels under the Berlin Wall were constructed in the 1960s.

** Tunnels under the Berlin Wall were always constructed from West to East. Digging a tunnel from East to West was much too dangerous. It was never done, never tried.

# 5. Axel, who teaches physics, is reprimanded for telling his students how and why and airplane can fly. This notion is absurd. East Germany had an airline (Interflug). The staff of this airline (pilots and mechanics) needed to know how and why an airplane can fly. Science was not a banned topic in East German schools.

# 6. There are several problems with the story-line. I will mention two of them here:

(A) Lars manages to connect with Lauren, but before he can ask her to deliver some secrets, she has a heart attack and disappears. When this happens, Lars is ordered to try to connect with Lauren’s colleague Sabine. This means the whole procedure must start over again. Why do we have to watch the same thing two times?

(B) Early on we are told that Lars is a twin. He knows. His father has told him that his mother and the other twin were killed in a car accident when Lars was a baby. But this is not true. Early on we learn that the mother is not dead. She lives in West Berlin under the name Dagmar Cutter. Her daughter Sabine is the other twin.

Sabine knows she is a twin. She has been told that her father and the other twin were killed in a car accident when Sabine was a baby. This is also a lie. Lars and Sabine are twins. We know it, but Lars and Sabine do not. What is the point of having this complicated set-up when the characters in the drama never find out that they are twins?

Der gleiche Himmel is a huge television production, but it is a disappointment. I have to say I understand the negative reviews and I agree with most of them. That is why I think the ratings mentioned above are too high. This drama is not great, it is not even good. It is simply average. Therefore it deserves a rating of three stars.

PS # 1. ZDF showed two documentary films that provide background information to the three-part drama, in particular the first story-line about espionage: Der lange Arm der Stasi and Informationen um jeden Preis. Each film runs for 43 minutes.

PS # 2. For more information about sport and doping in East Germany, see the following documentary film: Doping for Gold (2008).

PS # 3. For more information about digging tunnels under the wall, see the following book: The Tunnels: The Untold Story of the Escapes under the Berlin Wall by Greg Mitchell (2016).

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"Between ideologies and borders"

"Between love and betrayal"

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