Komplizen Serien, Studiocanal Series, Wdr and Ard Degeto have begun shooting the drama series, "A Better Place" for ARD, CANAL+ France and CANAL+ Austria. The series will be shown in the ARD Mediathek and the German broadcasting station “Das Erste” at the end of 2024.
"A Better Place" was developed by Alexander Lindh and Laurent Mercier. Filming will take place in North Rhine-Westphalia, including Wuppertal, Mönchengladbach and Leverkusen from August to December 2023.The producers set to work on the project are David Keitsch, Jonas Dornbach and Janine Jackowski, alongside Studiocanal Series's Producers Nicolas Loock, Kalle Friz FILM AG's Producers Alexander Glehr, Johanna Scherz. Studiocanal TV will globally distribute the title.
The writers include Karin Kaçi, Bahar Bektas, Nora Gantenbrink, Daniel Hendler, Emanuel Tessema, Maryam Zaree and Svenja Viola Bungarten, Lindh also acts as showrunner. Anne Zohra Berrached and Konstantin Bock are directing. WDR's Caren Toennissen and Frank Tönsmann and ARD Degeto's Christoph Pellander serve as editors. At CANAL+, France Brice Mondoloni is in charge of the project, at CANAL+ Austria Philipp Boechheimer.
The production is supported by the German Motion Picture Fund (BKM), the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Creative Europe MEDIA, and FISA+, as well as a slate of actors and actresses, among them are Maria Hofstätter, Steven Sowah, Katharina Schüttler, Johannes Kienast, Sandra Borgmann, Richard Sammel, Ulrich Brandhoff, Alev Irmak, Youness Aabbaz, Aysima Ergün, Cynthia Micas & Constantin von Jascheroff.
The series explores the possibility of maintaining a good society without prisonsand questions the idea of a non-violent social life and vividly and excitingly fans out the individual aspects in a social kaleidoscope. Set in a fictional city, mayor Amir Kaan (Steven Sowah), together with scientist Petra Schach (Maria Hofstätter), has started a revolutionary resocialization experiment. The local prison is to be closed, the inmates are to be reintegrated into society. Instead of punishment, they are given a place to work, housing, therapy and the obligation to deal with their crimes. The working title follows the events that illustrate this experiment in eight episodes of 45 minutes each and portrays the experiences of the offenders who fight prejudices and failures after returning to the city.
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