“Tribes of Europa”: The great war is coming

By Barbara Unterthurner

Innsbruck – On December 31, 2029 everything suddenly went dark.

 The  world perished.

 The  old nations, Germany, France, Austria, died, what remained were the tribes. Tribes like the Origines, the “voices of the forest, blood of the earth, breath of the wind” or simply a horde of neo-hippies who live according to the rules of the “mother” in harmony with nature.

 The ir pretty much the exact opposite: the Crows, a people with leather jackets who work in their factory and pass the time in a kind of mountain grove with gladiator fights. Techno sound included.

So the life of the future promises to be pretty rough. At least that’s how the series “Tribes of Europa” came up, which has recently been available on Netflix. It is probably the most elaborate German production for the US streaming giant to date. Showrunner Philip Koch relies on epic scenes from the post-apocalypse, deep forests, huge industrial barracks, a mix of (broken) English and German and liters of blood.

In 2074 the world will have returned to the Middle Ages. Associations with “Hunger Games”, “

 The  Destiny – Divergent”, “Mad Max” or “Game of Thrones” are quickly there. But first to the story:

 The  focus is on the young Origines siblings Elja (David Ali Rashed), Liv (Henriette Confurius) and Kiano (Emilio Sakraya), who are separated after a bloody attack by the Crows. Elja escapes with the magic cube, a technology that all peoples strive for. He should save them all, because the “black swarms” are racing towards Europe from the east. Whoever sees them dies.

 The  great war is coming.

While Elja tries to get the Cube to its destination in order to answer the central questions of the series (What actually happened in “Black December”?), Liv and Kiano try to survive. It has made a name for itself in the Republic of the Crimsons (led by the Austrian Robert Finster, who was last seen as “Freud” on Netflix). While with the Crows and his leader Lord Varvara (Melika Foroutan) he involuntarily rises powerfully in the course.

For this Elja got scrap dealer Moses (Oliver Masucci) aside, a Han Solo copy that doesn’t really want to get going. None of the figures has the perspective. Memories of the previous production by Tribes producer Quirin Berg are awakened: “Dark” scored with its courage to be complex.

 The  plot of “Tribes of Europa” is actually not so nested. But not without a twist or two.

Nevertheless:

 The  story of “Tribes of Europa” does not do justice to the epic images, but shows Europe diverse and eager to experiment. So not a bad approach.