"Tribes of Europa" on Netflix: Dystopia about teen heroes

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Fight scene from »Tribes of Europa«: Freud as an action fire accelerator

Photo: Gordon Timpen / Netflix

The future of the European Union is already in the past in this series.

It is the year 2074, a global blackout has brought the continent back into the Middle Ages, people band together in tribes to fight each other.

In one scene, the militia fighters throw on uniforms that come from the stocks of an army that was built up in the 1920s to defend a united Europe.

What will be left of Europe in 50 years: camouflage uniforms with bright blue emblems.

The Netflix series "Tribes of Europa" is a post-apocalyptic scenario in which the ideals of the EU echo as if from a distant time on the devastated continent.

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Oliver Masucci (r.) And David Ali Rashed in “Tribes of Europa”: the fall of western civilization

Photo: Gordon Timpen / Netflix

The militiamen in EU uniforms call themselves crimsons and feel committed to the principles of the collapsed liberal democracies;

their opponents are the crows, martially painted warriors, for whom only the right of the strong counts.

The Crimsons ("We defend, we never attack!") Curve in mobile units through bombed cities and wild forests;

The Crows reside in the ruins of Berlin, where they have slaves brew a super drug called "Wolk", which they then use at parties, wrapped in leather, lacquer and latex.

A bit like the people in pre-Corona Berlin: broad, but sexy.

The end of western civilization

Three siblings who lost their tribe in an attack by the Crows fight between the lines.

One brother (Emilio Sakraya) is kidnapped to Berlin, where he has to serve a female Crow fighter in the male harem.

The sister (Henriette Confurius) joins the Crimsons to fight for freedom with the crossbow.

The other brother (David Ali Rashed) comes into possession of a magical cube that is supposed to lead him to solve the riddle of why Western civilization went under in the first place.

An expansive mystery plot, a drastic end-of-time setting, heroines and heroes in their late teens - in many ways, “Tribes of Europa” is reminiscent of “Dark”, the only German series with which Netflix has so far been able to land a sustained international hit .

The algorithm dictates the genre: dystopia, the negative vision of the future, is extremely popular with the young target audience - probably also because it allows collective fears and catastrophe experiences to be processed.

What the atomic meltdown was for the Fridays for Future generation in »Dark« is now in »Tribes of Europa« the perceived end of a limitless coexistence among today's adolescents who were shaped by Brexit and the corona crisis.

»The Hunger Games« greet you

The teenage fear is fueled quite formulaically at the beginning, the decadent bread-and-games amusement in Crows-Berlin is reminiscent of the blockbusters of the movie series "The Hunger Games", the survival setting in denatured Europe of the survival saga " The 100 ”.

But over the six episodes of the first season (more are planned, but not yet ordered by Netflix), the series develops its own tone.

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Malika Foroutan as Varvara: "If you come before me, I'll cut your throat."

Photo: Netflix

Previously, »Tribes« creator Philip Koch shot a stylish vampire »Tatort« as well as the gamer drama »Play«, the only German production in which schoolgirl reality and game world reality were intertwined.

He is one of the young German television creatives who can do great genre cinema, but also use the level-based narrative logic of computer games for themselves.

For the picturesque overgrown Potsdamer Platz in “Tribes of Europa” he was obviously inspired by San Francisco in “Planet of the Apes”;

In his series there is sometimes fighting like in the apocalyptic role-playing game »Fallout«.

The young actors gradually break free from the tight gamer role corset, the older ones go with their characters into acting extremes.

Malika Foroutan, still one of the undiscovered great talents of German television, embodies a Crows general who keeps the harem in which one of the brothers has to serve.

Before the act of love, Foroutan takes out a knife and says: "If you come before me, I'll cut your throat."

Oedipal battles

One can argue about whether "Tribes of Europa" is suitable for 16-year-olds.

But in teen dystopias, initiations into adult life are often played out as explicit scenes of violence.

In this case, the scenes of violence are particularly explicit.

The brother has to kill his own father in the Crows Arena in order to stay alive himself.

The sister, the plot suggests, is supposed to kill a comrade's father in order to save her own family.

Wherever you look at "Tribes of Europa", Oedipal battles are raging everywhere.

But despite all the gloom: The idea that the kids will go into battle with the crossbow for a Europe that will one day be reunited makes the dystopia almost seem like a utopia.

»Tribes of Europa«,

from Friday on Netflix

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