😍 REVIEWS News – Paris/France.
If the Stasi was useful for one thing, then as a source of conspiracies: the GDR, land of archaic conflict, tragedy and slapstick. Betrayal has been institutionalized. Unofficial collaborators gave themselves captions and doctored the biographies of their targets. And the citizens, more or less in the name of peace, stuck to an ideology that had long since become a fiction. When this edifice of lies, in which one could manage well and lead a fulfilling life, then collapsed, all biographies experienced a brilliant turning point during which values and certainties were upset. Stories of all genres can be told along this downfall, why not also a brutal, darkly humorous, over-the-top thriller about a Stasi agent with a license to kill, who after said turning point becomes a figure of vengeful angelic identification? The new Netflix series “Kleo” tries to do just that.
Jella Haase plays the title role with the upright, blissful, forward-looking gaze of an FDJ woman. She is raised by her grandfather, a Stasis general (Jürgen Heinrich), and trained as an elite agent. As a Girl Scout for Peace, she leads a somewhat busy private life, watches "Pittiplatsch" on tube TV, ironically (and erroneously in hand position, as should be noted here) performs the salute of the pioneer and dream of family happiness with her commanding officer Andi (Vladimir Burlakov), who, contrary to all regulations, got her pregnant.
It's captivating how she maintains this look: going to work with it, through a tunnel to the west, where she shows up at Big Eden dressed and with a razor in a garter, abandons an enemy agent, orders him to going to the bathroom, administers poison and calm eyes during his excruciating death struggle, which causes blood to flow into his nose, ears and tear ducts. Does she even smile? Or is she giving him one last consolation for the journey?
Her fall is deep and incomprehensible for the exemplary fighter: she is accused of espionage by her family, feels firsthand the injustice of the system, wanders, now denied and betrayed, in prison and loses her baby there.
Even though she has to come to terms with the collapse of her ideals as well as deep personal disappointments throughout the story, even though she has to endure truly awful physical pain and fight outrageous life or death battles, small changes in her gaze doll appearance, which she sees as different well-seated wigs and sends them through selected glasses frames. She cries out for revenge, moans, moans and sometimes also grunts of pleasure, sings the song of the little trumpeter in her emotional distress, but again and again she shines her eyelamps and her shining steadfastness in the world: takes the events and consequences in his sights and guides them in their actions with brutal consequences. Eyes wide to her brows, she goes step by step in her campaign of revenge and, with the innovative spirit and diligence of the good young pioneers of the circle of young engineers, uses a wide variety of methods to kill her underworld adversaries. esteemed: with guns and poisons of every conceivable kind available, automatic flamethrowers, impressively powerful or relatively unrefined explosives with a peg. And if she cries, then God help us.
Netflix/Julia Terjung
Sven (Dimitrij Schaad) pursues Kleo but arrives too late as a rescuer.
The "HaRiBo" author trio (Hanno Hackfort, Richard Kropf and Bob Konrad), known from the hit series “4 Blocks” let off steam and pushed the story forward in a way downright insulting to viewers, with passport photos and business cards accidentally left behind, phone numbers ignored for years or, yuck!, sheets of paper slipping out of folders. These messages, clumsily tossed into the way by chance, keep Kleo's adversary, the gullible and vain Western policeman Sven Petzoldt (Dimitrij Schaad), on their trail like a treasure hunt. Pretty, the way he even winks at the camera once when he finds what he's looking for when he first grabs the shelf during a search: “It was easy. Also that everyone always crosses paths accidentally for the sake of narrative efficiency, it's actually quite funny. Why should you break away from believable justifications and historical accuracy when you can just state things and cut them straight into delightful scenes without any effort at explanation? We are not in the Stasi archives here, but at Netflix.
Unfortunately, we notice the effort of impertinence and the bravery in the voluntary attack on all the requirements of dramaturgy and credibility. The actors too, who should definitely dare something in the direction of Viviane Andereggen and Jano Ben Chaabane. Looks, gestures and sayings often seem copied and done, the timing isn't always right, and the always unique humor doesn't really trust its own punch lines. We feel carried away by the long camera gazes on the questioning faces and also a little embarrassed by the characters, who themselves cannot believe what is happening to them. Optical sophistication with odd outlooks and outlandish amenities don't always make up for that.
Julia Terjung
The agent en route to the operational area
The supporting roles work well, each being sufficiently endowed with a well-acted character dimension: Robert Gallinowski as an ignorant sergeant of the Wilhelminian type, Taner Sahintürk as a lisping canteen buddy, Kathrin Angerer as a lazy neck-turner and above all Vincent Redetzki as an officer of the Stasi Uwe Wittig, whose non-specific and overtly sexual anger against the class enemy is barely contained with cough syrup containing codeine.
“Kleo” does not hit the back or the front, but it is allowed. And with the thought of Quentin Tarantino or the Americans, it might also get a little awkward here and there. But forget it, for that is what one would wish for German film and television professionals: fearless aesthetic penetration, unbridled storytelling and no anticipated obedience to the limits of taste, pedagogical demands and lack of humor of the local public.
"Cleo", series, eight episodes, online from August 19, 9 a.m., on Netflix. With: Jella Haase, Dimitrij Schaad, Vladimir Burlakov, Thandi Sebe, Marta Sroka, Julius Feldmeier, Jürgen Heinrich, Yun Huang, Vincent Redetzki, etc. Book: “HaRiBo” (Hanno Hackfort, Richard Kropf, Bob Konrad) and author Elena Senft, production: Viviane Andereggen and Jano Ben Chaabane
SOURCE: Reviews News
Do not hesitate to share our article on social networks to give us a solid boost. 🍿