Oderbruch - Season 1
Oderbruch is an unexpected German gem, for those who love it As an avid series viewer, I like to regularly watch a non-English series. German series have the disadvantage that they are often set in the war periods of the last century. Just think of Das Boot, Babylon Berlin, Unsere Mütter unsere Väter... The trailer for Oderbruch caught my eye because the German ARD ventured into a dark thriller.
The name of the series refers to an area located on the border of Germany and Poland. A rural, sparsely populated, deprived environment, where youth leave due to lack of future prospects. There isn't much to do, until one day a mountain of corpses is found in the village of Krelow. And you can take the mountain literally here: it concerns the remains of almost 300 people mixed with animal carcasses that suddenly appear on a fallow field.
The countless murders seem to go back decades. Berlin Commissioner Roland Voit (Felix Kramer) is called upon to support the investigators. Roland was born in Krelow and was once a police officer there. Another former police officer, Maggie Kring (Karoline Schuch), is also called in, because the field where the bodies were found belongs to her parents. However, they refuse to cooperate in the investigation. Maggie and Roland were not just colleagues, they were childhood friends and lovers. When Maggie's brother died under suspicious circumstances, Maggie doubted the official version of events. She found no support from her beloved Roland, nor from her parents. For that reason she left the police and broke with Roland and her family.
It soon becomes clear to Maggie that there is a connection with the mountain of bodies and the disappearance of her brother earlier. She is determined to expose the truth this time. Out of guilt, Roland helps her as much as possible. They also receive help from a Polish police officer Stanislaw Zajak (Lucas Gregorowicz).
Maggie discovers that her family has a very dark past and that the village has been jealously silent about certain events for years. The search for the perpetrator leads to a supernatural twist.
Oderbruch is technically very well made, and the performances of the leading actors are simply excellent. The multi-layered story is very cleverly put together to keep you watching. But Oderbruch demands a lot from the viewer. The story takes place in different time periods: the present, the 1990s (when Maggie was a cop) and her childhood. And part of the story takes place in Poland. The result is that you see quite a lot of characters and locations in the first two episodes, without knowing the connection. Later, some scenes are repeated, but from a different character's perspective. They then provide a logical explanation of what seems rather an absurd or incomprehensible action.
Oderbruch is a series that you either love or hate. But anyone who likes a series with a complex and intelligent story structure, with many unexpected twists, will enjoy this. This is also a series that you will enjoy rewatching to discover the subtleties you missed the first time.
The name of the series refers to an area located on the border of Germany and Poland. A rural, sparsely populated, deprived environment, where youth leave due to lack of future prospects. There isn't much to do, until one day a mountain of corpses is found in the village of Krelow. And you can take the mountain literally here: it concerns the remains of almost 300 people mixed with animal carcasses that suddenly appear on a fallow field.
The countless murders seem to go back decades. Berlin Commissioner Roland Voit (Felix Kramer) is called upon to support the investigators. Roland was born in Krelow and was once a police officer there. Another former police officer, Maggie Kring (Karoline Schuch), is also called in, because the field where the bodies were found belongs to her parents. However, they refuse to cooperate in the investigation. Maggie and Roland were not just colleagues, they were childhood friends and lovers. When Maggie's brother died under suspicious circumstances, Maggie doubted the official version of events. She found no support from her beloved Roland, nor from her parents. For that reason she left the police and broke with Roland and her family.
It soon becomes clear to Maggie that there is a connection with the mountain of bodies and the disappearance of her brother earlier. She is determined to expose the truth this time. Out of guilt, Roland helps her as much as possible. They also receive help from a Polish police officer Stanislaw Zajak (Lucas Gregorowicz).
Maggie discovers that her family has a very dark past and that the village has been jealously silent about certain events for years. The search for the perpetrator leads to a supernatural twist.
Oderbruch is technically very well made, and the performances of the leading actors are simply excellent. The multi-layered story is very cleverly put together to keep you watching. But Oderbruch demands a lot from the viewer. The story takes place in different time periods: the present, the 1990s (when Maggie was a cop) and her childhood. And part of the story takes place in Poland. The result is that you see quite a lot of characters and locations in the first two episodes, without knowing the connection. Later, some scenes are repeated, but from a different character's perspective. They then provide a logical explanation of what seems rather an absurd or incomprehensible action.
Oderbruch is a series that you either love or hate. But anyone who likes a series with a complex and intelligent story structure, with many unexpected twists, will enjoy this. This is also a series that you will enjoy rewatching to discover the subtleties you missed the first time.
About the writer, Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
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