"Davos" at the 73rd Berlinale

Davos, the famous Swiss mountain town at an altitude of over 1,500 metres, is both a place of longing and a political centre that used to be famous for its sanatoriums for lung patients and fashionable hotels, but is now primarily used for winter sports and enjoys world renown as the capital of the Economic Forum. The story of this event series is also set in the field of tension between Thomas Mann's "Magic Mountain" and its political and historical significance. Inspired by true events, "Davos" tells the fictional story of an extraordinary woman who fights for self-determination in the midst of a patriarchal world and develops into an important player in the war of the spies against the backdrop of the First World War. The local nurse gets caught between the fronts of the secret services secretly operating in Davos. In order to win back her illegitimate daughter, she gets involved in a dangerous game with the German secret service - and suddenly becomes the tip of the scales in a risky plan that will decide between war and peace.

The Swiss-American actress Dominique Devenport, who is probably best known to German-speaking TV viewers as Empress "Sisi" from the RTL series of the same name, has taken on the role of the self-confident young woman. She is joined by Jeanette Hain and David Kross and other roles are played by Anna Schinz, Hanspeter Müller-Drossaart, Welket Bunguè and Sunnyi Melles.

The legendary mountain hotel Schatzalp, a nostalgic Art Nouveau building at an altitude of 1,800 metres with a sun terrace overlooking Davos that can be seen from afar, serves as a sanatorium. At the time, the Schatzalp was a sanatorium where some famous personalities were treated, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Thomas Mann also visited his wife, who was treated there. "Unfortunately, it wasn't possible for us to film the entire sequence here because of the hotel's operations," explains Hamburg Executive Producer Michael Lehmann, who is producing "Davos" together with Lisa Arndt for Letterbox Filmproduktion. Film locations were therefore set up for the interior shots in the former forest hospital in Windeck in North Rhine-Westphalia and in the film studio in Penzing, Bavaria. The team also filmed at various locations in the Lower and Upper Engadine and moved to South Tyrol for some scenes. And as this espionage thriller reveals a wide range of connections, important players of the time also play a role, such as the steel barons in North Rhine-Westphalia and even the Hamburg boat builders from Blohm & Voss, who got involved in armaments production and built submarines during the war. Michael Lehmann explains the background: "Although Switzerland was neutral, the hotels in Davos were full of industrialists, arms dealers and agents, and the powers of the time even had accommodation in the hotels of this climatic health resort."

But how exactly did the co-production come about? Executive Producer Michael Lehmann was looking for partners in Switzerland a good six years ago and contacted Swiss producers Ivan Madeo and Stefan Eichenberger from Contrast Film. "At the same time, Swiss Radio and Television SRF issued a call for tenders for a series format, which was exactly the right time to enter into a partnership and apply for this series project together," says the CEO of the Studio Hamburg Production Group. Other partners came on board for the Swiss broadcaster's most expensive series production with a budget of more than 18 million euros: ARD Degeto (Christoph Pellander, Claudia Grässel) as TV partner and Amalia Film (Felix von Poser) in Munich as co-producer.

The six-part series format is being produced by the trio Jan-Eric Mack, Anca Miruna Lăzărescu and Hamburg-based Directors Christian Theede (Pfefferkörner) based on scripts by head writer Adrian Illien as well as Thomas Hess, Julia Penner and Michael Sauter.

The logistics for such a large-scale production and the high pressure in the final production - after all, "Davos" is due to be screened next winter - require a high degree of division of labour among the directing trio, who work alternately on set and are also busy in the editing room at the same time.

Even though this historical drama series is primarily set in the Swiss mountains, Hamburg and its harbour play a role in some scenes. The Hanseatic city is also home to one of the main producers, the MOIN Film Fund is on board and some of the elaborate post production is done in the north. At the 73rd Berlinale, the Hanseatic city is now presenting yet another calling card as a production location for major international high-end series formats.