On the Precipice (5/6)

On the Precipice (5/6)

Martin has set aside his doubts and together with Katja has accepted the Simkow's invitation to dinner. He is still uncomfortable hiding from them the fact that he believes that he is Anna's father. Anna is delighted to see Martin again and there is a real connection between the two. Martin, touched by his daughter's trust, finally blurts out that he wants a paternity test. Maria and Rainer Simkow are furious and promptly throw Katja and Martin out of the house. That same night, the CIA agent Robert Schnyder confronts Falk at his front door and shows him Katja's photograph. Falk is under even greater pressure, as Schnyder intends to blackmail him: in exchange for keeping his crime a secret, Falk must provide Schnyder with important information from the MfS. Falk negotiates a better deal: the CIA will pay him for the information. In the meantime, Marlene suffers a relapse. She wants the entire family to spend Christmas together because she fears that she doesn't have long to live. And she gets her wish - on Christmas Eve the entire family is gathered around the table one more time. When they are all together, Falk reveals that he has bought the house in which the family lives from the MfS, so that his parents no longer need to worry about having to leave. Hans is touched and, for the first time in years, embraces his son. Marlene, who can no longer bear Martin's suffering over his daughter Anna, wants to help him and asks Julia's former midwife, Johanna Wagner, to make a sworn declaration that Anna was swapped at birth for the Simkow's dead baby. This should improve Martin's chances of getting a paternity test. And Wagner wants to help. But then she sees a photograph of Falk in a newspaper article and recognizes him as the man who nine years previously had ordered that the children be swapped. She comes to an important decision and calls Martin.

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)