TV highlight
“Heaven & Earth”: ZDF shows a series about the lives of Ukrainians
What is life like in a country to which you had to flee without further ado because your own was attacked by an aggressor? With the new series “Heaven & Earth” Ukrainian filmmakers give an insight into their life in Germany. photo
© Nataliia Khalan/ZDF/dpa
Millions of people have fled the country since the war of aggression began in Ukraine. The new ZDF series “Himmel & Erde” shows what life is like for refugees in Germany now.
In five 20-minute episodes, Ukrainian filmmakers tell the story of the life of Ukrainians in Germany – that is the background to the ZDF project “Heaven & Earth”. It is the first and so far only fictional production against the background of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, told by Ukrainian filmmakers in Germany, emphasizes ZDF program director Nadine Bilke.
All episodes have been available in the ZDF media library since Thursday with German, English and Ukrainian subtitles. They will be shown on linear television on October 25 from 8:15 p.m. on ZDFneo.
It’s a so-called anthology series, which means that although there is something unifying, i.e. all episodes have a unifying theme, the episodes by no means have the same characters or a plot that builds on one another.
The stories are told by the only people who can really tell them, as ZDF emphasizes: “All the trades involved – from script and direction to camera, light and sound, equipment, make-up and costumes to production, editing and music – were occupied by Ukrainian filmmakers who themselves fled to Germany or have been living here for a long time.”