Summer 1944. Walter Proska (Jannis Niewöhner) is about to return to the Eastern Front when his train is blown up by partisans. Together with a scattered bunch of German soldiers, cut off from the front, he awaits certain death while the commands of his superior Willi Stehauf (Rainer Bock) are becoming more and more senseless and inhuman. Proska’s encounter with the young Polish partisan Wanda (Malgorzata Mikolajczak) and his friendship with his comrade Kürschner (Sebastian Urzendowsky) increasingly make him doubt the validity of his oath of allegiance. As the Red Army draws closer, Proska becomes a prisoner of war and can only save himself by defecting to the enemy.
“Firstly, this is quite a surprise and secondly, after reading the book, a sensation. 'The Turncoat' is a brilliant novel, adding an impressive work to Lenz’s output, and thus to German postwar literature.” (Volker Weidermann, DER SPIEGEL, 27.02.2016)
- Category
- TV Series
- Genre
- Period Drama
- Status
- on screen
- Awards
- Golden Bird Prize for Best TV Movie at the Seoul Drama Awards 2020, Bavarian Television Awards for Rainer Bock (Actor) and Bernd Lange (Script), New York TV+Film Festival Award for Best Film, German Television Academy Award nominations for Jannis Niewöhner (Lead Actor), Rainer Bock (Supporting Actor) and Simone Bär (Casting)
- Filmförderung
- Polish Film Institute, FFF Bayern, MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg
- Broadcaster
- NDR, ARD Degeto, SWR
- Premiere
- 1. April 2020 online
- Editor
- Christian Granderath, Sabine Holtgreve, Carolin Haasis, Manfred Hattendorf
- Sales
- Beta Film
- Cast
- Jannis Niewöhner, Malgorzata Mikolajczak, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Rainer Bock, Bjarne Mädel, Leonie Benesch, Florian Lukas, Katharina Schüttler, Ulrich Tukur, Alexander Beyer, Adam Venhaus, Shenja Lacher, Marek Solek, Holger Handtke
- Cinematographer
- Arthur Reinhart
- production design
- Magdalena Dipont & Robert Czesak
- Costume Design
- Lisy Christl
- Cuttter
- Marco Pav D'Auria, Robert Rzesacz
- Composer
- Antoni Lazarkiewicz
- Casting
- Simone Bär
- Screenplay
- Bernd Lange & Florian Gallenberger
- Executive Producer
- Stefan Raiser, Felix Zackor
- Director
- Florian Gallenberger
