# The Turncoat (2020)

> Cut off by partisans on the Eastern Front in summer 1944, a German soldier must weigh his loyalty against increasingly senseless orders from his superior.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/85037

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, war
- Created by: Florian Gallenberger
- Network: Das Erste, NDR Fernsehen, SWR Fernsehen
- Cast: Jannis Niewöhner, Małgorzata Mikołajczak, Leonie Benesch, Rainer Bock, Katharina Schüttler, Bjarne Mädel, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Florian Lukas
- TMDB rating: 6.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5917226/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: bleak, grave, tense, claustrophobic

## Synopsis

The Turncoat (2020) is a German limited series created by Florian Gallenberger for Das Erste, a German national-television war drama. Jannis Niewöhner plays Walter Proska, a soldier whose train is blown up by partisans in summer 1944 just as he is set to return to the Eastern Front. Stranded with a scattered group of German soldiers cut off from their army, he finds himself waiting for certain death while the commands from his superior, Willi Stehauf (Rainer Bock), grow more and more senseless and inhuman. Małgorzata Mikołajczak plays Wanda Zielinski, and Leonie Benesch plays Hildegard Roth, adding further perspectives to the group. The four-episode run, each about forty-five minutes, builds its engine from the tension between survival and obedience, as the men must decide what loyalty means when their orders no longer make sense. Set in the final year of the war in the shattered borderlands of occupied territory, the series carries a bleak, grave atmosphere shaped by dread and moral unease. It suits viewers who enjoy grounded wartime stories with the moral weight of Generation War, and fans of Band of Brothers will recognize its attention to ordinary soldiers. Its tone is serious and claustrophobic, with the war's violence and its human cost kept at the center of each episode.

## Shows like The Turncoat

- [Days of Honor (2008)](https://ember.film/tv/38738)
- [Unknown Soldier (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/72107)
- [We Are the Wave (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/79973)
- [Das Boot (1985)](https://ember.film/tv/118571)
- [Criminal: Germany (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/79405)
- [Line of Separation (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/63444)
- [Apostle (2008)](https://ember.film/tv/60165)
- [The Tower (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/57605)
- [Dime Quién Soy: Mistress of War (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/93279)
- [NSU German History X (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/67455)

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