# Banksters (2026)

> A young man arrested in Berlin in 2004 must decide whether to stay silent and face prison or betray his accomplices to go free.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/1104975

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 6
- Episode runtime: 42 min
- Status: Returning Series
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Bernd Lange
- Network: HBO Max
- Cast: Eren M. Güvercin, Merlin Von Garnier, Michelangelo Fortuzzi, Maria Dragus, Zoe Fürmann, Anna Bardavelidze, Numan Acar, Britta Hammelstein
- TMDB rating: 6.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt39379411/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: tense, gritty, bleak, suspenseful

## Synopsis

Banksters is a German crime drama series created by Bernd Lange for HBO Max, a six-episode run of 42-minute episodes that is still airing its first season. Set in 2004 Berlin, the story follows twenty-year-old Yusuf Arslan (Eren M. Güvercin), who is arrested during a football match and accused of a string of bank robberies. The engine of the show is his dilemma: staying silent means years behind bars, while talking means betraying the people he worked with. Alongside him, his sister Selda Arslan (Anna Bardavelidze) and Hanna Arslan (Britta Hammelstein) work to return the stolen money and uncover who informed on him, while detective-style pressure builds from the investigators around him. Each episode is built from interrogations, family confrontations and tense cat and mouse exchanges that peel back the criminal network one layer at a time. Grounded and gritty in tone, the series balances dread, loyalty and moral conflict with a restrained, realistic sense of place. It is a true events inspired crime story in the vein of Money Heist and Babylon Berlin, and fans of Peaky Blinders will find resonance in its clan loyalty and street level criminal textures. Viewers who enjoy serialized German crime television will find it a tight, morally tense watch.

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