Julia (3/6)

Julia (3/6)

Julia and Martin attempt to start over and move into a garden cottage, which Martin's former colleague has made available to them. Neither of them is yet able to believe their new happiness. They tentatively practice living together in new "normality". But Julia is unable to get the idea out of her mind that her child is still alive and was taken away from her after the birth.Falk is meanwhile aware his wife Vera is hiding something from him. When he finds an environmental journal from the church amongst her things he is furious and challenges Vera to her face, hitting her about the head with the "lying rag". Unknown to Falk a colleague has gleefully handed photos of Vera at the church event to his superior, Gaucke. In desperation Falk claims he infiltrated his wife as an informer after she had told him her colleague Nicole had made subversive remarks. Unfortunately he forgot to open a file for his wife in time.The relationship between Dunja and her daughter Julia remains tense and marked by mutual recriminations. Hans wants to help Martin and Julia, however. He promises to organise building materials for the cottage's renovation. The once staunch secret police officer increasingly feels the discrepancy between socialism's original ideals and the Stasi's methods. Falk, in contrast, does not have any such doubts. He will deceive even his own wife for his political goals. With the help of the marriage guidance counsellor, whom he has compelled to follow his course, he is able to convince Vera they should adopt. This is how Falk intends to save his marriage. And he has already selected the child: the five-year-old Sonja.Julia is obsessed with the thought her child was taken away from her. When Falk threatens to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital Julia runs for it. At that moment a truck turns the corner and is no longer able to stop in time...

Taking its name from the locality in the then divided city that houses the notorious Stasi secret police-run Hohenschönhausen prison, the series tells of young police officer Martin, from a loyal Party family, who falls in love with the beautiful young and rebellious Julia, from a family of dissidents: a Romeo & Juliet saga of two lovers struggling against prejudices and the social and political odds.

Grimme Award 2016
German Screen Actors Award 2014
German TV Award 2011 for Best Series
Nominated for Prix Europa 2011  
The first 6 episodes to be screened at Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) New York in April 2011.

PRESS REVIEWS

• Family saga Weissensee recounts what life in East Germany was like, in a DALLAS style. (Der Spiegel, Sept. 13, 2010)
  
• Weissensee (...) is simply a well-made drama, which profits from a tight story arc, a superb cast and terrific set design. (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Sept. 14, 2010)
  
• Behind the surface story of two families in 1980s Socialist East Germany - replete with romance, intrigue and betrayal - a piece of real life emerges: authentic, dramatic. (Welt Online, Sept. 14, 2010)
  
• A courageous effort - which pays off handsomely. Beneath the soap opera plot, a complex web of desires and wishes emerges, of self-deception and patronizing. (Spiegel Online, Sept. 14, 2010)
  
• A highly original TV series. (Leipziger Volkszeitung, Sept. 6, 2010)
  
• Germany's biggest newspaper BILD headlined "The most spectacular TV series of the year." (Sept. 11, 2010)