dto this evening, and for the following two first evenings, at 21.20 on first tv on Rai 2 will be broadcast The dark side of my familya German mini-series that achieved record ratings at home. And that tells the drama of a teenager who has to face the death of the mother at the hands of her beloved father.
The dark side of my familythe plot
The Klettmann family lives in a quiet suburb of Munich. Peter (Torben Liebrecht) is a lawyer in his father’s law firm and his wife Anna, whom he has known since school, takes care of their children Vivi (Julia Beautx) and Danny – who attend the Friedhelm Moll private gymnasium – and little Emmi. On the day of Anna’s 44th birthday celebrationsthe day begins as always with a big family breakfast, but in the morning, events suddenly fall apart. In fact, Anna is stabbed in the kitchen and Peter calls the police, accusing himself of the crime without confessing the motive.
Arrested and taken into custody, the man refuses to talk to his children and Vivi, barely of age, is forced to take care of her brother and little sister who would otherwise be assigned to foster families. In the meantime, the girl binds more and more to Tim, the police officer who arrived at the crime scene shortly before Anna bled to death. Actually, Tim is not the person he seems and he has his own reasons for being next to the girl. Through flashbacks, different points of view and twiststhe plot will reveal to the viewer the dynamics that led to Anna’s murder.
Torben Liebrecht and Rieke SejaI in a scene from “The dark side of my family”. (Courtesy ZDF and Walter Wehner)
A mix between thriller and family drama
Successfully broadcast in Germany by ZDF for three consecutive evenings, The dark side of my family became (so far) the most watched German TV series of the year. With over 21 million viewers, half a million likes on TikTok and trending topics on Twitter. It is therefore inevitable that it also landed in Italy which, as in the mother country, will broadcast the remaining two episodes tomorrow and the day after. But what is the secret of this huge success? First, the screenwriter Natalie Scharf’s great ability to distribute the intricate events over multiple temporal levelsintersecting the past with present events in an absolutely compelling way.
Julia Beautx in a scene from “The Dark Side of My Family”. (Courtesy ZDF and Walter Wehner)
In fact, the series develops on two temporal planes: the first is a sort of journey through time that recounts Peter’s youth and shows what traumas led him to uxoricide. The second instead takes place in the present and describes what happens to the family after the murder. Hence the original title (Yesterday we were children) who really wants to underline the complicated transition to adulthood of all the protagonists. And above all tell how a single gesture can still have serious consequences decades later and that unfortunately, too often, even children and grandchildren still suffer from what the generations that preceded them have done. The intense performances of all the actors and in particular of the rising star Julia Beautx also contribute to the success of the series. Who interprets the fragile protagonist Vivi with courage and sensitivity.
Julia Beautx, a star is born
Born in the Ruhr area in 1999, the young star is a hugely successful actress, singer and influencer in her homeland. 4 million followers on InstagramJulia in 2014 opened a Youtube channel who slowly gathered thousands of peers thanks to videos on her lifestyle and beauty secrets. And where the younger sister Bella also often appears. After a series of small TV roles, thehe big opportunity comes thanks to The dark side of my family where the young star proves he knows how to get by even in dramatic roles.
Also creator of a line of perfumes and cosmetics, Julia recently joined the cast of another hugely successful series: Frühling. Story of a nurse working in a Munich hospital and that one day she meets a little boy who tells her that his mother is in the hospital and that she needs help. Katja thus goes to the town of Frühling to help Tim and his sisters – including Julia – until her mother has recovered. And the woman likes her new job so much that she decides to stay in Frühling and collaborate with the parish priest to help families in difficulty.
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