The year is still young, the expectations are high. Which film and series hits from Bavaria are we heading towards, what will surprise producers, TV stations and streaming services in 2023? A little first: There is news from Franz Xaver Bogner and Sonja Heiss, tried and tested from Niederkaltenkirchen, Pumuckl’s resurrection and perhaps the biggest fake in music history. But one after anonther.
cinemamovies
Emotional journey through time with big names: Senta Berger and Günther Maria Halmer (right) play the leading roles in Rainer Kaufmann’s film “Do you remember”.
(Photo: Mathias Bothor/Majestic)
The driving force of Bavarian cinema is and remains the Eberhofer. Anyone who thinks that the crime comedies about the provincial cowboy, played congenially by Sebastian Bezzel, is gradually running out of steam is wrong. “Guglhupfgeschwader”, the eighth film based on Rita Falk’s best-selling books, set a new record last year with almost 1.37 million viewers. And because a new episode has been flickering across the screen almost every year since 2013 (except for 2015 and 2020), many should already be looking forward to “Rehragout-Rendezvous”. That’s the name of film number 9, which is scheduled to start on August 10th. The first pictures show: Things are happening in Niederkaltenkirchen, and not just in the well-known traffic circle. Grandma (Enzi Fuchs) goes on strike across the board, Susi (Lisa Maria Potthoff) becomes deputy mayor, and Eberhofer feels his male pride has been hurt. Of course, there is also a murder case. But only in the summer.
High culture made its way into the cinema earlier: multi-talented Axel Ranisch created a hybrid of opera and film with “Orphea in Love”. At the center of the contemporary reinterpretation of the ancient Orpheus myth: Mirjam Mesak, who the Munich audience knows from the Bavarian State Opera, which in turn was a cooperation partner. “Ranisch celebrates opera, love and the power of music in everyday life. And that has a lot of magical poetry,” wrote the SZ critic about the premiere in the National Theater in autumn. The modern crossover spectacle is expected to start in cinemas on March 30th.
The cinema projects of the Munich directing professionals Sonja Heiss, Rainer Kaufmann, Hans Steinbichler and Simon Verhoeven also arouse curiosity. Heiss dared to film the first Joachim Meyerhoff: “When will it finally be like it never was” is, so to speak, the groundbreaking coming-of-age section of the bestseller cycle, telling a childhood and youth in the middle on the psychiatric grounds (theatrical release February 23). Kaufmann, on the other hand, stages an experienced couple, Senta Berger and Günther Maria Halmer, who use a miracle pill to remember their early happiness and dive into the past together (“Do you remember”, theatrical release: September 21). Steinbichler’s literary adaptation of Robert Seethaler’s “A Whole Life” is due to start in early November, as is Verhoeven’s production of the insane pop story about the fake duo Milli vanilla (with Matthias Schweighöfer as producer Frank Farian) shortly before Christmas.
TV Movies
Rating kings among beauty queens: Ferdinand Hofer, Miroslav Nemec, Daria Vivien Wolf and Udo Wachtveitl (from left) in the new Munich “crime scene”. The episode “Queens” has a prominent cast with Veronica Ferres and Wolfgang Fierek and will be shown on ARD in autumn.
(Photo: Luis Zeno Kuhn/Odeon Fiction/BR)
Heiter weiter was last shot at the Munich “crime scene”. BR has announced the result in the form of three new episodes for 2023. In the film called “Hackl” (March 12), Burghart Klaußner is an angry citizen in Hasenbergl, FC Bayern star Joshua Kimmich appears as a guest as a fitness influencer. The case “Game Over” (spring 2023) leads into the gaming milieu, but the episode “Queen” (autumn 2023) should certainly attract more attention. It is about sexual assaults in the environment of Bavarian product queens, prominently cast with Veronica Ferres and Wolfgang Fierek. There will already be a new Franconian “crime scene” with Fabian Hinrichs in the spring, and favorite rascal Michael Ostrowski will be allowed to do the Passau crime thriller again. And over the course of the year you can follow the investigator change from Verena Altenberger to Johanna Wokalek on “Police call 110”. The BR has more recent material to offer, including the science fiction school drama “Morin” and the coming-of-age love drama “Flunkyball”.
series
Stephan Zinner as a pastor in Franz Xaver Bogner’s new series “Heaven, Dominion, Sacrament”.
(Photo: Barbara Bauriedl/Maze Pictures/BR)
As far as the series is concerned, many – believers and non-believers alike – are waiting for Franz Xaver Bogner’s latest directorial work (“Irgenwie und Sowieso”). The 74-year-old was most recently involved with the church as an institution and is now telling the story of a pastor who wants to revitalize his new parish with unconventional methods. “Heaven, Dominion, Sacrament” is a six-part series starring Stephan Zinner – loosely based on the non-fiction book by the well-known Munich pastor Rainer Maria Schiessler (start not yet scheduled, but probably 2023). The thriller series “Der Pass” with Julia Jentsch and Nicholas Ofczarek as an unequal investigator duo in the Bavarian-Austrian border area has been adored since 2019. According to the broadcaster, the third season of the Sky production is scheduled to premiere in the second quarter of 2023. Again, it’s about a serial killer, but unlike last time, the action takes place in the summer. Also on Sky, but already on February 24, a new action series with Ken Duken and Fabian Busch in the leading roles: “Drift – Partners In Crime” relies on an unequal pair of brothers as an unexpected investigative duo, but above all on roaring car engines in the Bavarian Alps and on dirt roads in Greece.
In the footsteps of Master Eder: Florian Brückner plays Gustl Bayrhammer’s nephew in “New Stories from Pumuckl”. The series is scheduled to be streamed on RTL+ at the end of the year.
(Photo: Luis Zeno Kuhn/RTL)
The “Snow” series is also set in Bavaria’s mountains. The mystery thriller with Brigitte Hobmeier and Robert Stadlober deals with the climate crisis, deadly village secrets and a mythical nature that strikes back. On the other hand, you still have to wait a bit for the revival of the Pumuckl: According to RTL, which shows the “New Stories from the Pumuckl” on its streaming channel RTL +, a broadcast date can still not be specified. But “at the end of 2023” Florian Brückner, as Master Eder’s nephew, is supposed to be confronted with the pranks of the rhyming goblin. Marcus H. Rosenmüller directs.