With over 4.1 million views in the first week, “Babo – The Arrest Warrant Story” is one of the most successful German Netflix documentaries.
The documentary “Babo – The Arrest Warrant Story” about the rapper arrest warrant is currently turning out to be a huge streaming success: on October 28, 2025, the film was released worldwide on the streaming platform Netflix. The production reached around 4.1 million views within the first six days.
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4th place in the global Netflix top 10
This puts the German production in fourth place in the global weekly charts (October 27 to November 2, 2025) in the “non-English language films” category. Only “Babo” has not yet been able to prevail against the top three ranks, which are occupied in descending order by the films “The Elixir”, “Idli Kadai” and “Caramelo”. However, the documentary has long dominated on a national level: it immediately reached number 1 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Opportunities for non-English language productions are better than ever
In the context of successful Netflix documentaries, it is striking that non-English-language films and series have become significantly more important in recent years. English-language productions are often ahead, as the figures for the current number 1 film show. Kathryn Bigelow’s thriller “A House of Dynamite” reached another 31.6 million views in its second current week. But the success of “Babo – The Arrest Warrant Story” underlines that German productions can also attract international attention. Other successful German Netflix productions include the cult film “Nothing New in the West” and the series “Babylon Berlin” and “Dark”. The latter had 2.97 million streams in its first week.
Success through controversy and authenticity
Directed by “Turkish for Beginners” and “Fack ju Göthe” star Elyas M’Barek and Pacco-Luca Nitsche, the documentary shows the life of the rapper arrest warrant, real name Aykut Anhan, which is marked by crime and psychological crises. Anhan’s drug problem is also openly discussed. The documentary is both celebrated and criticized for its portrayal of a rapper, which is perceived as raw. Particularly from a feminist perspective, there is an increasing number of voices online that primarily focus on the role of Aykut’s wife Nina Tahan.