Aman Goyal
Moviedelic can confirm that Lionsgate’s upcoming Israeli series has been titled ‘The German.’ The biographical drama, which revolves around the life of Josef Mengele, will start filming next month in Germany. Oliver Masucci and Ania Bukstein headline the cast, which also includes Naya Bienstock, Ido Tako, Rotem Keinan, and Sarit Vino-Elad. Assaf Gil created the show with Moshe Zonder and Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz.
The plot begins a couple of decades after the end of World War II, focusing on Uri, a pioneer behind a kibbutz who rescued Jewish communities by relocating them to Israel. He and his wife, Anna, are also Holocaust survivors who decide to leave their traumatic past behind and start their lives anew in the country. They remain silent about their past for 25 years until Mossad, the Israeli spy agency, forces Uri to return to Germany and infiltrate a cell of SS veterans. The mission is to find out the whereabouts of the Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, also known as the “Angel of Death,” who escaped at the end of the war.
Mengele is infamous for his deadly experiments on prisoners at Auschwitz and Gross-Rosen concentration camps during the Holocaust. He performed inhumane medical experiments and sent countless victims to the gas chambers. After Nazi Germany’s defeat, Mengele fled to Argentina, later moving to Paraguay and Brazil while evading West Germany, Israel, and Nazi hunters. Mossad’s special spy operations aimed to capture Mengele serve as the show’s premise.
Masucci, a renowned German actor, is recognized for his performance as Ulrich Nielsen in Netflix’s sci-fi show ‘Dark.’ He also portrayed Adolf Hitler in the historical drama ‘Look Who’s Back,’ Arthur Kemper in ‘When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit,’ and the legendary filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder in ‘Enfant Terrible.’ The actor’s recent credits also include Anton Vogel in ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’ and Hansueli in Roman Polanski’s ‘The Palace.’ In addition to ‘The German,’ his future projects include ‘King and Conqueror,’ ‘Speed Train,’ and ‘Shelter Me.’
The Israeli actress Bukstein is known for appearing in the Hebrew shows ‘Magpie’ and ‘Kfulim.’ Her more prominent credits include High Priestess Kinvara in ‘Game of Thrones.’
Gil produced Israeli adaptations of shows like ‘The Masked Singer,’ ‘Married at First Sight,’ and ‘MasterChef.’ Zonder is known for writing episodes of Netflix’s ‘Fauda,’ set around the Israel-Palestine conflict, and co-creating Apple TV+’s ‘Tehran,’ another show about Mossad’s espionage operations. Weiss-Berkowitz served as the head writer of ‘The Girl from Oslo,’ ‘Inyan Shel Zman,’ and ‘A Touch Away.’
The collaboration of international production companies, cast, and crew members makes ‘The German’ a multilingual series that will be filmed in Hebrew, German, and English. Germany, the principal location, has long been a popular destination for both tourists and film crews, hosting productions ranging from espionage projects like ‘The Bourne Identity’ and ‘Octopussy’ to World War II films such as ‘Inglourious Basterds,’ ‘The Pianist,’ and ‘All Quiet on the Western Front.’
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