ZDF removes Chemnitz from new drama series

Chemnitz/Dresden – The joy was (initially) great when it was announced that Chemnitz would become the hub of the international series “Concordia – Deadly Utopia“. The ZDF production will start in the media library on Saturday – but without the future European Capital of Culture.

In an initial draft of the series, Chemnitz was to be the German counterpart to the Swedish city of “Concordia,” where seamless 24-hour surveillance by artificial intelligence (AI) offers residents security.

But during production, the Saxon city was simply deleted from the script.

Now the fictional town of “Kopwitz” is the setting for the action. Perhaps because not a single scene was filmed in Chemnitz?

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Instead, the team around star director Frank Dölger (“Game of Thrones”, “The Swarm”) went to Rome, northern Italy, Dresden and Leipzig.

ZDF spokeswoman Mailin Erlinger explained the change in response to TAG24’s query as follows:

“Similar to the Swedish city of Concordia, the German city was also fictionalized. In both Sweden and Germany, however, the fictional cities are contextualized by real cities nearby.”

In Sweden, for example, after a resident was shot and the AI ​​“Concordias” was hacked, the Gothenburg police were called in to investigate the murder.

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The fictional town of Kopwitz, on the other hand, is located near Dresden and Leipzig, where the headquarters of the hacker group is located, which is doing everything it can to prevent the introduction of a transparent society in Saxony.

Jonas Nay (33, “Deutschland 83”), who plays Leon, the leader of the “Faceless”, plays a key role in the manipulation of “Concordia”. For him, the series was “a unique project that oscillated between utopia and dystopia”, as he explains in an interview with ZDF.

Not only does it sound exciting, it is – impressive images from the Saxon capital and the trade fair city included. Unfortunately, the people of Chemnitz came away empty-handed in the end.

All six episodes can be seen in the ZDF media library from Saturday. On linear TV, “Concordia – Deadly Utopia” will be broadcast on October 20 and 21, each day from 10:15 p.m.