The eight-part series “Oderbruch” on ARD

MThe final chapter of the Second World War began with the Battle of the Seelow Heights in April 1945. Here, in the Oderbruch, 70 kilometers east of the capital, almost a million Red Army soldiers faced 120,000 Wehrmacht soldiers. At least 10,000 dead remained on the battlefield. Bodies are still being recovered in the eerie forests and live ammunition is being recovered in this sparsely populated border area with Poland.

The ground, soaked with blood, does not rest in other respects either. In addition to human violence, it is nature, the flood of the Oder, that has repeatedly caused victims. After reunification, anyone who could sold the cursed land, as is shown in historical flashbacks in the eight-part series “Oderbruch”. Most of them were ripped off by rip-offs. Many people didn't seem to care. People were used to dead people, but the past as a battlefield, the present as a dangerous flood zone, and the existence as a landscape of dark myths and horrible traditions drove even the hardened away.

A mix of history and the supernatural

The rest remained silent, as the series by Arend Remmers (head author), Christian Alvart, Martin Behnke and Ronny Schalk (all script) shows, which expands in many directions. “Oderbruch” is an exceptional series in several respects. Five years from developing the series idea to broadcasting is not exactly typical for television. A large cast with numerous main and supporting characters, locations in a variety of locations, from the German part of the Oderbruch via Poland to Romania and the Carpathians, each with their own look, and a number of secondary strands.

A main plot that spans many decades, consistent set design, dark in the present, flooded with deceptively warm light in the time frame of the summer of 1990, something that is usually only known from international glossy productions (production design by Carina Cavegn, Verena Barros de Olivera). Impressive mystery suspense music (Roman Fleischer, Tim Schwerdter, Christoph Schauer and Max Filges) does the rest.

“Oderbruch” is ARD's first collaboration with the American CBS Studios and was shot for an audience that can relate to a mix of history and the supernatural, the combination of thriller suspense with drastic horror images, but not to the German television film sensibility. The directors Adolfo J. Kolmerer and Christian Alvart, the cameramen Christian Huck and Christian Alvart, who also acts as a producer, are aiming for the big hit.

Numerous narrative arcs, revelations, twists and turns, a casual approach to the whereabouts of some minor characters who are no longer relevant to the story in later episodes, the narrative streak of several centuries, plus a cast that guarantees creative space, that's impressive. In addition to a total of almost eight hours of broadcast time, in which as much happens as in some other series in eight seasons. “Oderbruch” is overwhelming television.