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BENEATH THE SURFACE

TOD VON FREUNDEN

By Friedemann FROMM

LETTERBOX FILMPRODUKTION GMBH - as PROD

TV Series - Completed 2019

beneath the surface - a story about pain and love, longing, mistrust and anger - in their most elemental form.

- Year of production
- 2019
- Genres
- TV Series, Drama
- Countries
- GERMANY, DENMARK, GREECE
- Languages
- GERMAN, ENGLISH
- Director(s)
- Friedemann FROMM
- Writer(s)
- Friedemann FROMM
- Cast
- Jan Josef LIEFERS, Katharina SCHÜTTLER, Lene Maria CHRISTENSEN, Thure LINDHARDT, Milena TSCHARNTKE, Oskar BELTON, Lukas ZUMBROCK, Anton PETZOLD, Jakob CEDERGREN
- Producer(s)
- Michael LEHMANN (Letterbox Filmproduktion), Andreas KNOBLAUCH (Letterbox Filmproduktion), Lisa ARNDT (Letterbox Filmproduktion), Christian FRIEDRICHS (Letterbox Filmproduktion)
- Synopsis
- Two families in the German-Danish border area, who have merged into a single close-knit unit over many years and across a national border: The couples Sabine and Bernd with their children Karl (15) and Kjell (16), and Jakob and Charlie with Emile (17) and Cecile (16), have created a paradise for themselves on one of the Oxen Islands in the Flensburg Fjord. Here, encircled by the Baltic Sea, they live the dream of a luxurious and close community. But when Jakob's missing brother Jonas suddenly reappears after 15 years, the idyll created by the two families is shattered..
  
  Jonas, who is so seductively and dangerously different, gradually draws the teenagers under his spell.
  
  And then the unthinkable happens: Kjell goes overboard on a night-time sailing trip with Charlie and Jakob. He doesn’t reappear.
  
  The friends decide to go through this unbelievable horrible experience together.
  
  But there are inconsistencies about the course of the accident. Kjell’s father Bernd, decides to investigate on his own. His mistrust finally breaks up the community, leaving chaos, grief and anger in its wake.
  
  In their grief for their best friend, the children drift further and further away, initially unnoticed by their parents.
  
  Kjell's brother Karl, who is on the autism spectrum, is the only one who refuses to believe that his brother is never coming back — because Kjell didn't say goodbye to him.
  
  But then Emile manages to break free of the downward spiral, and fights to save his sister Cecile. Jakob channels his pain into his work as an artist, and attracts the interest of international collectors. Sabine rediscovers her roots as a dancer. And Charlie fights for the future of the company she jointly owns with Bernd, who has completely withdrawn. When the company, which builds spectacular bridges all over the world, gets into a perilous situation, she begs him to come back. In return, she will tell him the truth about what happened the night of Kjell's accident. But it is Emile who finally makes Bernd see what he has lost: his son, but also his friends and family. He comes to realise that he has let them down just as he accuses them of having done to him.
  
  Just as the families seem to be growing together again, Karl of all people finds proof that his brother survived. But mixed with their joy is the question of why Kjell let his family believe that he was dead – and in doing so brought immense grief and suffering to the people he loves.
  
  Sabine has the answer to the mystery surrounding Kjell. But if she ends the lie on which the paradise of families was built, the consequences for her and the others will be devastating.
  
  Truth is rarely the direct path to happiness.