EXCLUSIVE: Deutschland 83 creator Jörg Winger has landed one of the first German-language series for Disney+ international streamer Star.
Through his Fremantle-backed production company, Big Window Productions, Winger will make Sam – A Saxon for the service, telling the true story of East Germany’s first Black police officer, Samuel Meffire.
The eight-part series — one of 10 Disney+ European shows exclusively revealed by Deadline today — traces Meffire’s extraordinary life after he became a media sensation and a symbol of modern society in the post-reunification 1990s.
But Meffire’s father was killed in a racially motivated attack and he eventually became disillusioned with his symbolic status, ending up behind bars himself just a few years after the Berlin Wall fell. Ultimately, however, Sam – A Saxon is a redemptive story, with Meffire now a reformed character, putting his experiences to good use.
Winger produces the series alongside Tyron Ricketts through Big Window, which was established last year as a label within Deutschland 83 producer UFA Fiction. Cold War espionage series Deutschland 83 is one of Germany’s biggest TV exports and a third season, Deutschland 89, premiered last year. It streams on Amazon internationally and on Sundance TV in America.
The other German project unveiled by Disney on Tuesday was Sultan City. Another Star original, it is a dark comedy about the respectable matriarch of a German-Turkish family who accidentally becomes the head of a criminal underworld. Two Moons Pictures produces.
