Picture Palace  We Are the (Next) Wave

When US streaming giant Netflix launched in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Luxemburg in 2014, it heavily relied on its catalog of standard American fare. But then came supernatural German hit thriller DARK in 2017 –Netflix’ first very successful foray into milking the global content creation market—and they haven’t stopped maximizing this business model since, with crime show DOGS OF BERLIN (2018) or the popular coming-of-age dramedy HOW TO SELL DRUGS ONLINE – FAST (2019). With one of their latest German production, the teen drama WE ARE THE WAVE, Netflix is going daringly political.

A group of teenagers dream of a better future. Their leader, a newcomer at school, recruits four friends to start a youth movement. But their ideas develop a dangerous momentum. The series is loosely based on the young adult novel “The Wave” by Morton Rhue, a story about an American history teacher who tries to explain to his high school students through a social experiment how a fascist regime evolves.
Same topic, different angle: Instead of students turning fascist, we meet a group of increasingly radicalized left-wing guerrillas – a provocative and risky decision in 2019 that sparked fierce debates on social media right after the teaser trailer was released. No wonder, considering Germany’s past and the fact that “mainstream” fascist movements, as well as right-wing terrorist attacks, are on the increase. During the 2017 federal election, the far-right party AfD (Alternative for Germany) took more than 12% of the vote and is now represented in all provincial parliaments. In the most recent provincial election, in the south-eastern state of Thuringia, the AfD came in second with 22%, barely 2% behind Merkel’s ruling conservatives and well before all other traditional democratic parties. THE WAVE in real life. In several interviews, the creator Gansel explained that he didn’t want to use the same narrative again but wanted to move the conversation a decade ahead from the last adaptation and into our future. Currently, we see people of all ages on the street, demonstrating for equal rights or the protection of the environment (Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion, the MeToo movement, etc.), but not much seems to change in the political arena. Sensing a social context of dissent, protest, and the questioning of existing values, Gansel proposed his core questions: One reaction to the show’s setting was that it was criticized as a piece of propaganda aimed against the anti-fascist movement. Let’s have a look at the show then: The first episode of WE ARE THE WAVE starts with the arrival of a new mysterious high school student named Tristan (Ludwig Simon, one of a whole cast of fresh faces) in a fictional German city. He is good-looking, intelligent, plays the piano and casually speaks fluent Arabic. Too good to be true? With this kind of charisma, he makes friends in no time: Lea is rich but feels lost and unhappy; Zazie is being bullied by her classmates; Rahim is a victim of racism, and Hagen lost everything after the family farm was destroyed by waste from a paper mill. What unites these teenagers is their outsider status in a society that seems to be full of injustices. Together, they start to take action and organize protest campaigns against sexism, environmental pollution, capitalism, and racism. Contrary to what other critics feared, anti-fascism and left-wing extremism aren’t glorified either. The activists are merely depicted as a young and inexperienced group of teenagers who act in the heat of the moment without planning their political initiatives all the way through. Hence, the situation quickly gets out of hand. It isn’t until somebody actually gets hurt that the teenagers start reflecting on their actions. Eventually, everyone has to decide for themselves how far they would go for their ideals and whether the end justifies the means – including the viewers. Credits:
Written by: Jan Berger with Ipek Zübert, Kai Hafemeister and Thorsten Wettcke
Directed by: Anca Miruna Lăzărescu and Mark Monheim
Produced by: Dennis Gansel / Rat Pack Filmproduktion in cooperation with Sony Pictures Film und Fernseh Produktion
Starring: Luise Befort as Lea Herst, Ludwig Simon as Tristan Broch, Michelle Barthel as Zazie, Daniel Friedl as Hagen, Mohamed Issa as Rahim
1 Season: 6 episodes à 48-54 min.
  This article was first publish in 2019 on the GERMAN FILM @ CANADA Blog.