THE NIBELUNG SAGA

This adaptation of the epic German poem, The Song of the Nibelungs, is all about love, betrayal, murder. The story of Siegfried‘s heroic deeds and Kriemhild‘s revenge is our national epic. It‘s a story of courage and adventures, of eternal love, of envy and worship, of treason and loyalty and of terrible revenge - the Song of the Nibelungs is a poetic narrative from the emotional world of the Germans. The forest as a place of longing, where Siegfried slays the dragon and loots the treasure, the loyalty to the ruler, who one follows unconditionally till death, the love that is pure and selfless. These are the themes that make the tale appear familiar to us and made it to a part of the German or even mid European identity. For better or worse.

We leave the High Middle Ages, where the unknown narrator based the story, and go back 800 years into the 5th century, back to the origin of the saga of the Nibelungs:
Around 410, the Burgundians settled around the region between Mainz and Worms, where they suffered a crushing defeat by Attila‘s troops in 436 and were driven away by them. We set the story during the time of the migrations of nations, in a changing world, where warrior tribes merge into nations and conquer former Roman territories. We tell of the will to survive in an archaic time where the right of the strongest prevails.
The eight-part-format allows for a complex and psychologically accurate story without epical slowness and historical bombast. We tell the old German lore of the life and death of two families - the Burgundians and the Nibelungs - in a realistic and thrilling way. With their dilemmas and longings, their hate and their desperation, Kriemhield and Siegfried will appear modern to us. And that‘s the way they will speak, too.

Series
Idea: Uwe Kersken
Screenplay: John H. Carsten, Heiko Schier
Co-production: G5 fiction with Ufa Fiction
Producers Ufa Fiction: Nico Hofmann, Ulrike Leibfried, Joachim Kosack
Producer G5 fiction: Uwe Kersken