‘Oktoberfest: Beer and Blood’: Release date, plot, cast, trailer and all you need to know about the German miniseries
Earlier this year in April, Bavaria’s leaders canceled Oktoberfest, the world’s biggest beer festival, because of the coronavirus pandemic. The 210-year-old festival, which attracts around six million visitors a year, is a major event in the German calendar. Markus Söder, the premier of Bavaria, said “Living with coronavirus means living carefully. As long as there is no vaccination, we need to be very sensible. We are in mutual agreement that the risk is quite simply too high … compromises will not help.”
But even as October is nearly here, there is still something regarding the festival that its many fans can still look forward to -- ARD Mediathek’s new German show, ‘Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood’.
Release date
‘Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood’ was first released September 8 in Germany as ‘Oktoberfest 1900’ on ARD Mediathek. On German television, the six-part German-Czech television series will be broadcast on Das Erste on September 15, September 16, and September 23, in double episodes. The series will receive its global premiere on Netflix on October 1 under the title ‘Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood’.
Plot
‘Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood’ tells the story of the struggle between two beer dynasties for supremacy at the world's largest festival in a complex and opulent manner. The show follows Nuremberg brewer and restaurateur Curt Prank, as he plans to steal five stalls at the Oktoberfest with the help of the henchman Glogauer and the Munich city councilor Alfons Urban; for Prank wants to build a beer castle that could host 6,000 guests -- 20 times the size of the usual beer stalls at Oktoberfest.
The story also revolves around Prank's daughter Clara who falls in love with Roman Hoflinger, the son of Ignatz Hoflinger, owner of the small, traditional Deibel brewery -- the only person who refuses to sell his beer stall to Prank. The show promises to take the audience into a fantastic and mysterious Munich at the turn of the century. In this place full of history and stories, the multipart drama unfolds a modern myth about fateful love and the unstoppable rise of capitalism.
Cast
Mišel Matičević as Curt Prank
The 50-year-old German film, television, and theater actor of Croatian descent is a well-known name in German television and cinema. Matičević is known to often play macho roles in crime dramas. His more famous roles include films like ‘Lost Killers’, ‘Das Gelübde’, ‘My Beautiful Country’, ‘In the Shadows’, and more. In television, his noted roles include ‘The Company’, ‘Im Angesicht des Verbrechens’, and ‘Dogs of Berlin’, among others.
Martina Gedeck as Maria Hoflinger
The 58-year-old German actor is internationally famous for her roles in ‘Mostly Martha’, ‘The Lives of Others’, and ‘The Baader Meinhof Complex’. Her other works include ‘La Religieuse’, ‘The Good Shepherd’, ‘Life is All You Get’, ‘Night Train to Lisbon’, and more.
Francis Fulton-Smith as Ignatz Hoflinger
The 58-year-old British-German film and television actor is best known for his roles as former Bavarian Prime Minister Franz-Josef Strauss in ‘Public Affairs’, and Hermann Goering in ‘The Good Goering’. His other works include ‘Tatort’, ‘SOKO 5113’, ‘Cologne PD’, ‘Stuttgart Homicide’, and more.
Klaus Steinbacher as Roman Hoflinger
The 26-year-old German actor is best known for his roles in shows like ‘The Boat’, ‘Marienhof’, and ‘Siska’. In films, his works include ‘Das Leben ist ein Bauernhof’, and ‘Meine Frau, ihr Traummann und ich’.
Mercedes Müller as Clara Prank
The 24-year-old German actor and kickboxer is best known for her role of Paula Bergmann in the telenovela ‘Wege zum Glück’. Her other notable film roles include ‘Die Wilden Hühner und das Leben’, ‘ Sechse kommen durch die ganze Welt’, and ‘Tschick’.
‘Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood’ also stars Brigitte Hobmeier, Maximilian Brückner, Markus Krojer, Martin Feifel, Michael Kranz, Vladimir Burlakov, Eisi Gulp, Irina Wanka, Petra Berndt, Sibylle Canonica, Michael A. Grimm, Ferdinand Dörfler, Angela Ascher, Monika Manz, Hans Stadlbauer, Urs Althaus, Christian Lex, Sascha Maaz, and Stefanie von Poser.
Creators
‘Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood’ has been created by Christian Limmer and Ronny Schalk based on an idea by Alexis von Wittgenstein. Hannu Salonen has directed all six episodes of the limited series. Other writers on the show include Stefan Betz, Niko Schulz-Dornburg, Christian Lex, and Michael Proehl.
Trailer
The following is the German-language trailer for ‘Oktoberfest: Beer & Blood’. The short trailer highlights little more than what's already known about the show. But what it does reveal is tasteful visuals and an aesthetic that will take fans back to ‘Peaky Blinders’.
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