Series “Liberame” on ZDF: One cuts the rope

MMediterranean romance, breeze, cool beer, holidays for the five sailors of the “Liberame”. There can hardly be a more experienced skipper than Jan Garbe (Friedrich Mücke), owner of a shipyard in Hamburg. The atmosphere is great, on board with his wife Caro (Johanna Wokalek), his sister Fiona (Natalia Belitski), her partner Daniel (Marc Benjamin) and family friend, the lawyer Helene (Ina Weisse). This goes on until an overcrowded refugee boat catches the eye of the carefree on the open sea.

Jan doesn’t hesitate. After all, they are “all good people” and are obliged to provide emergency aid under international maritime law. He crosses over with Daniel in the dinghy, brings water and medicine and tries in vain to get the engine running. The desperation and fear of death of the people is palpable. Abstract news reports become, look by look, word by word, fellow human beings. People like Ismail Sabia (Mohamed Achour) and his wife, the doctor Zahra (Kenda Hmeidan), who fled the civil war in Syria with their son Said (Shadi Eck) and brother Bilal (Tariq Al-Saies). Daughter Jasmin is feverish. Or people like Akono (Emmanuel Ajayi) and his father from Nigeria.

Nobody answers the “SOS” of the Liberame – although the Italian coast guard must be within reach. Towing to the port of Catania and guilty of aiding and abetting illegal entry? Or should they now leave people to their fate? What if the desperate decide to hijack the yacht? Jan lets his crew vote. The exit is tight: 3:2 for towing. And then? The next few hours of the narrated time bring us to the present.

Intertwining the past, the present and the possible future, the six episodes of the series “Liberame” open up the dilemma between moral convictions and their probation in an extreme situation – beyond legal abstraction. The subject has been dealt with several times in recent years, for example in the film “Styx” with Susanne Wolf, in the radio play in the cynical satire “Most Africans Cannot Swim” with Devid Striesow and Eva Löbau. The water, the Mediterranean Sea with its dangerous refugee route, always has a dual function: recreational space for some, mass grave for others. In no other editing, however, have refugees and “benefactors” been told so biographically equally and directly, one side had to approach the other. Each and everyone gains contours and color as a person (Book Astrid Ströher and Marco Wiersch).

Seven people die

“Libera me” means “Redeem me”. The Lord’s Prayer prays for salvation from evil, this exceptional ZDF series is about the need for salvation from fatal consequences that follow despite the best human intentions. About salvation from errors, misjudgements, conveniences and simple weaknesses that get in the way of better knowledge. “Liberame” is not moralizing, but above all cinematically convincing. In thoughtfully assembled flashbacks and current shots, with an extremely mobile camera that plays with sharpening and blurring and offers uncertainty shots, the story is told in parable form (Laura Wachauf montage, Christian Huck camera), but you always stay very close to the people. Thanks to the excellent ensemble, from which Kenda Hmeidan stands out, and thanks to the narrative economy equality with which the stories of the Syrian and German families are told, the plot, despite all the symbolism, seems very close (directed by Adolfo J. Kolmerer).

During the night a storm comes up that forces the Liberame to change course. Bilal fears nothing more than returning to the Libyan coast. Helene falls asleep drunk at the tax station. The yacht is unguided. In the morning the sea is calm. The boat with the refugees is gone. Years later, Ismail, now a taxi driver, sees Jan again in Hamburg and confronts him about what happened: someone on the yacht, says Bilal, cut the rope at night. Seven people died when the refugee boat sank, including Jasmine and Akono’s father. Jan invites the family to brunch to talk. While daughter Elly (Mina-Giselle Rüffer) sunbathes in a bikini and son Gustav (Wieland Bock) splashes in the garden pool, Zahra, who is now working as a doctor again, finds it unbearable to renew their acquaintance. Ismail indicates Jan. Bilal and Akono, who is threatened with deportation, want justice or revenge. Daniel comes back to Hamburg, Helene drinks again. And Elly and Said hatch a plan that will add more consequences to the original tragedy.

Liberame – After the storm runs today, on Monday, and on Wednesday, each from 8.15 p.m. on ZDF. All episodes are available in the ZDF media library.