beyer-sebastian

I was excited to see, this will be a series. The novel this show is based on was my start into fantasy and is probably not known to an international audience. Funnily the plot is set in 1994 which is about the time I devoured the book as a 14-year-old. I remember reading around 250 pages on a rainy Sunday.

So as it is obvious the creators are trying to follow the success of "Stranger Things" in some ways, do not make the mistake to compare The Gryphon too much to the Netflix hit. It is an original story that Hohlbein created long before. As far as I can tell after three episodes (earlier start in Germany as it is a German production) the buildup is good and leaves enough things to your imagination, while hinting enough to keep it interesting.

The series seems to be a little darker than the book, which was youth fantasy, whereas this is fun to watch as an adult. CGI quality is better than I expected and acting and plot are fine. So is the depiction of 1994 Germany, although the town of Krefelden is fictious. I feel like most clothing styles of the teenagers came up a few years later.

After almost thirty years after first reading the book (and many others by Wolfgang Hohlbein) I enjoy this so far and will keep watching, respectively bingeing the episodes to come. I just fear this season will end in a cliffhanger and the wait for continuation will be painful.

Well, not exactly boring, but unnervingly slow in the beginning. So I never read all of it. The series though is interesting for me: Magic more of a philosophy than the way to gain power, used only by two people, who do not always get all the consequences of their actions. Good characters, interesting plot development and more detail than a movie could deliver. I like this one.

As a German born and socialized in the western part and having lived in the eastern part for more than 17years now, I feel like this is quite some masterpiece. One year after the initial theatre campaign many people seem to relate to the movie, as a concert of Gundermann's songs performerd by director Dresen and lead actor Scheer yesterday in Leipzig was sold out.

The authentic interpretation of Gerhard Gundermanns poetic and mostly deep songs is the most fascinating part of the movie, closely followed by the makeup departments stunningly exact remodeling of Gundermann's face. Even his widow has said in interviews it was spooky to look into the face of her deceased husband just as she remembered it from 15 years ago.

In fact both Dresen's singing and his looks are so close to the original that I have to listen closely when hearing a song from the movie to distinct it from one of the original works of the popular East German songwriter who as many had to find a way of dealing with the profound changes of 1990. the big turning point in Germany's most recent history.

The film also achieves an unbiased perspective leaving it to the spectator to find a point of view towards Stasi activities and SED ideology. A fascinating and totally underrepresented movie on this platform. Just see for yourself.