It is the first successful German produced series ever. In the beginning, a lot was hyped up as well-known actors like Kida Ramadan, Frederick Lau, Massiv (rapper) & Veysel (rapper) play in the series. But in the end, this hype also got me and that was really right.
Plot
The Lebanese Ali „Toni“ Hamady has lived in Germany with his family for 26 years. He is the boss of an organized crime family located in the Neukölln borough of Berlin. In order to protect his wife Kalila and daughter Serin he tries to become a legitimate businessman. After his brother-in-law Latif is arrested with nine kilograms of cocaine in the trunk of his car, Toni must do something. He does not want to let his unpredictable brother Abbas take his place as head of the Hamady Clan. Meanwhile, Toni runs into Vince, an old friend who he trusts. He takes Vince into confidence, not realizing that Vince is actually working with the police as an undercover agent.
Production
Principal Photography
The first episode of the series was shot in July 2016 in Berlin. Locations in the Neukölln and Kreuzberg boroughs were used including the Sonnenallee, the Kottbusser Tor subway station and Görlitzer Park. The budget for the first season was four million Euros with 250,000 of that coming from the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Release
The first two episodes of the series were shown on 15 February 2017 at the Berlin International Film Festival. The complete first season was broadcast weekly for six weeks from May to June on the TNT Serie network.Since October 2017 the Video-on-Demand service Amazon Video has broadcast the series in more than 150 countries in the original German. In summer 2018, 50 additional countries will be able to access the show. On 28 November 2017 the series was broadcast on the Free-TV and ZDFneo networks.
