Sundance TV’s “Deutschland 83” is hyped as the first German-language series to be picked up by an American network.
Now that’s going to lure the viewing masses!
And it’s also selling the show short, because “Deutschland 83” is not just subtitled — it’s a promising spy show.
If the European origin adds anything, it’s a you-are-there edge over, say, “The Americans” on FX.
The first episode opens with the broadcast of then-President Ronald Reagan’s era-defining speech about the “Evil Empire” in 1983. Reagan proposes deploying more NATO missiles in Europe to block the expansion of Soviet power and influence.
The American saber-rattling worries East Germany, which decides to up its spy operations. And few countries could top the German Democratic Republic when it came to eavesdropping — the regime extensively practiced on its own residents, after all.
The foreign arm of the infamous Stasi (the secret police) jumps on a rare opportunity to place a mole at a key post in West Germany. They pick Martin Rauch (Jonas Nay), a young border guard, to take the place of one Moritz Stamm, the aide to a high-level West German general involved in NATO negotiations. The men are both 24, have a similar appearance and share a taste for soccer.
The switcheroo is seamless: Moritz never makes it to his new post — a girl and a gun make sure of that — and Martin takes on his identity.
Martin/Moritz must get used not only to his new job but to life in the West, where supermarkets are fully stocked, young women join hippie ashrams and the radio plays hits besides Nena’s “99 Luftballons.”
The second episode introduces more cloak-and-dagger elements as Martin must steal documents from a military conference in a hotel, which involves him scrambling on rooftops and laying eyes on a strange new device — a floppy disk.
But what really makes this eight-episode series stand out is its setting, because a family divided is more impactful than strangers going at each other.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, America and the USSR duked it out for world supremacy, but they were wildly different countries. With East and West Germany, you had two neighboring countries divided by politics — one a capitalist democracy, the other a communist dictatorship — but sharing a history and a language.
“Deutschland 83” always plays on the idea of perverted family ties. Martin is even volunteered for the dangerous job by his own aunt, Lenora (Maria Schrader), a ruthlessly efficient Stasi operative who also gets his mom — her sister — to toe the line by promising her faster access to a liver transplant.
Much of the impact and suspense of “Deutschland 83” comes from this closeness. Based on two episodes, it’s unclear how long Martin can keep up his cover. The real suspense, however, is whether his familiarity with the West will breed increased contempt — for the East.
