'THE TURNCOAT' SENDS
JANNIS NIEWOHNER TO WAR
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| The Turncoat airs on Epic Drama Channels in Europe |
Back to our favourite international waters, we are presenting you today with German mini series
THE TURNCOAT which aired in Germany back in April, but is starting this weekend in Europe on Epic Drama cable channels. The four episode war drama comes from
Beta Film.
The Turncoat directed by Academy Award winner
Florian Gallenberger
from
Sigefried Lenz's international bestseller "Der Überläufer", is set
in the summer of 1944. German soldier Walter Proska
 |
| Jannis Niewohner takes the lead role |
(
Jannis Niewohner,
whom we adored as
Maximilian and
Goldmund) is about to return to the
Eastern Front when his train is blown up by his love interest, the
partisan Wanda. Together with a scattered bunch of fellow soldiers, cut
off from the front, he awaits certain death while his commanding
officer, Willi Stehauf, issues ever more senseless and inhumane orders.
Proska's encounter with a young Polish woman fighting as a partisan and
his friendship with his comrade Kürschner increasingly makes him doubt
his oath of allegiance. As the Red Army draws
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| The four episode series was helmed by Oscar winner Florian Gallenberger |
closer, Proska becomes a
prisoner of war and the only way he can save himself is by defecting to
the enemy. By January 1945, he is part of the Red Army –
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| The series already aired in Germany and in Scandinavian countries |
sure that he is
finally fighting for the right cause. Yet in the aftermath of war, in
Berlin's Soviet Zone, he has his doubts as he realizes that neither he
nor the
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| The series was created out of the film for international broadcast |
country can shed the burdens of the past. Once again, as his
fate hangs in the balance, he is forced to make a moral decision,
defecting yet again – this time, to the West.
