Imagine a post-apocalyptic social studies lesson that Mad Max himself planned. This is roughly what the lavish new Netflix series Tribes of Europa looks like.
Equipped with platform shoes, mascara and a heart for Europe, the science fiction series tackles big issues with an even greater will to entertain. The result is an unexpectedly free-spinning German series that plunges headlong into the genre. However, she also accepts the associated creative concussion. The audience bears the costs for this.
3 things you need to know about Tribes of Europa on Netflix:
Sci-Fi new to Netflix: The exciting basic idea of Tribes of Europa
In 2074 the European continent is divided among tribes. A catastrophic blackout is to blame. What it was all about is one of the great secrets of season 1. The result is clear: technology and electricity collapsed, millions of people died, governments fell.
Check out the trailer for Tribes of Europa:
The remaining people are fighting for privilege on the continent. There are the gloomy crows, martial warriors in lacquer and leather who sniff drugs like the warboys in Mad Max: Fury Road. Opposite them, the Crimson Republic stands at attention in its uniforms and preaches the values of the collapsed Eurocorps.
The Origines live isolated from their arguments. The siblings Kiano (Emilio Sakraya), Liv (Henriette Confurius) and Elja (David Ali Rashed) grow up in the peace-loving tribe. In the swatchmovies first episode, however, the three heroes of Tribes of Europa are separated and scattered to the wind. We get to know the brutal outside world through their eyes.
The secret highlight of the sci-fi series is called Moses
Elja carries the biggest secret of the three main characters with her. Because he comes into possession of a high-tech cube of enormous importance. Everyone is after the cube, including the loner Moses (Oliver Masucci with the most expressive upper lip on Netflix). "If you want to live, get in," Moses grumbles at his future road movie buddy, as Arnold Schwarzenegger once did in Terminator 2: Reckoning Day.
Masucci's undeterred stupid portrayal of mischievous Moses is the secret highlight of Tribes of Europa. It works like an acting detox after his appearance in the cold, wet German sci-fi series Dark.
The journey to hell to Berlin is captivating
The most interesting storyline in the six-episode first season, however, belongs to Kiano. After the Origines are wiped out by the Crows, he is enslaved and deported to Brahtok. Brahtok is nothing less than the techno hell that Berlin turned into in 2074. Here the Crows live, celebrate and kill as they please.
Kiano's journey through hell through this world fluctuates between wonderfully trashy dialog points and a terrifying psychological ordeal. Just when you want to giggle, laughter dies in your throat. This abrupt change of mood is symptomatic of the Tribes of Europa.
Between concussion and addiction binge: Tribes of Europa won't let go
The series looks incredibly expensive with its many locations and at the same time like a B-movie. The topic that was inspired by the 2016 Brexit referendum is incredibly serious. At the same time, the examination of the values of the European Union is packed in a lacquer and leather cover. She screams for everything, just not to be taken seriously.
Tribes of Europa is an addicting roller coaster ride, not just of the emotions, but also of the tone, aspiration and genre.
You have to get involved in this ups and downs, otherwise you pay with an agonizing frenzy between foreign shame, fun and shock. A dive like this into creative waters can be expensive. But it can also be absorbed in the strongest German Netflix vision since Dark and How to Sell Drugs.
All six episodes of Season 1 of Tribes of Europa were available for this series check.
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