Dating back to the mid-1970s, UFA Fiction’s latest series ‘Disko 76’ is set at a pivotal time in the industrial heartland of West Germany where a new American pop music craze is taking over the airwaves and dance floors.
The six-part series, which premiered at the Berlinale Series Market recently, continues its international rollout at Series Mania in Lille before premiering on streaming platform RTL+ on March 28 and on the RTL Group Nitro channel on April 1.
UFA Fiction quickly won over the RTL+ network with former UFA Fiction producer Benjamin Benedict’s idea of a family story set in the disco era, says fellow producer Sina Suiter.
Featuring classic hits from the likes of Donna Summer, ABBA, Kool and the Gang, Boney M. and many more, the series follows Doro (Louise Aschenbrenner), a rebellious young woman bound by married life who finds freedom with the arrival of disco music. In her hometown of Bochum, first at a nearby American military base, and then later, with her help, at her brother Georg’s (Jonas Holdenrieder) newly acquired bar. She also falls in love with a mysterious and talented dancer, played by famous actor Jannik Schumann (“Sissy”).
While music and dance parties excite the city’s youth, a new fad leads to panic and anger among the older generation, pitting Dora against her strict father.
Suiter points out that in addition to addressing the social and political issues of the time, the narrative weaves in metafictional interludes, providing the series with a modern quality.
As a UFA Fiction production, “Disko 76” also represents “cross-departmental content collaboration” within Bertelsmann, which owns the RTL Group, of which UFA Fiction is a part.
“On the one hand, the collaborative connection is clear, as UFA, as a production house, has produced series for the Bertelsmann TV channel RTL and its streaming service RTL+,” explains Suiter. “On the other hand, it goes beyond this collaboration, as the novel adaptation of the series of the same name is also published by Goldmann Verglag (part of the Penguin Random House publishing group) and BMG is also involved in the project as a musical consultant.”
As a period show, ‘Disko 76’ looks set to continue UFA’s recent successes with historical series, including ‘Ku’Damm’, ‘Charité’ and ‘Faking Hitler’.
“What certainly unites all historical series is the audience’s fascination with a past time, and therefore a different life with different costumes, music, values and social norms,” says Suiter. “Historical series in themselves have something escapist about them.”
She added: “For me, ‘Disko 76’ is not a typical historical drama series. It chooses its own tone and finds itself in a range between drama and comedy. Moreover, the series is very aware of its current view of the time we are telling.”
“Disko 76 tells the story partly through contemporary commentary and tells it very quickly, using metafictional elements of modern storytelling. The social and political issues and unrest of this time are recounted, but entertainment and fun are treated at least equally .
She adds that the series “has the potential to reach a very wide audience,” not just people with fond memories of the 1970s but also younger audiences “because of the modern narrative style and the young cast. It’s basically a coming-of-age story and a lot of people can relate.” With it.
In fact, Aschenbrenner and Schumann lead a large group of well-known young actors.
“With their interpretations and concepts of the characters, Yannick Schumann and Louise Aschenbrenner immediately succeed in making it impossible not to portray them as Robert and Doro. They show great acting skills. Yannick was able to master a rather difficult choreography very well and make it look incredibly easy.” Louise has also created a character that is distinctive and fallible, but also so humorous that you would gladly go on a journey with her.
The cast also includes Vanessa Loibel (“Unsere Wunderbarten Jahre”); Emma Nova (“In Berlin Wächst Kein Orangenbaum”); Merlin Sandmeier (“Template Discount”); Natalia Warner (“Die Diplomatin”); farba ding (“tobab”); Julia Jendrusek and Aljosha Stadelman.
While the story is set in Bochum at a very specific time of change in the Ruhr region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Suiter is confident that “Disko 76” will strike a chord with global audiences.
“Sound and dance are universal, so you can communicate globally. The stories we tell are personal, but they also relate to the big issues of the time, which did not just happen in West Germany.
“The challenge of axioms, the struggle of generations, the search for and finding one’s identity did not exist only in Germany in the 1970s. Invitations to this year’s Berlinale Series market and the Series Mania festival in Lille have shown us that “Disko 76” also attracts international attention. “Disko 76” travels From Bochum via Berlin to Lille and hopefully beyond.