''Kleo'' is a German

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

-thriller television series co-created by Hanno Hackfort, Richard Kropf, Bob Konrad for

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

. The story follows the revenge journey of a former

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

assassin, Kleo Straub (

Jella Haase Jella Haase (born 27 October 1992) is a German actress. She began acting in theatre at a very early age. Her film credits include ', ''Fack ju Göhte'' and ''Combat Girls''. She has also appeared on the television shows ''Polizeiruf 110'' and ...

), after her arrest and subsequent imprisonment until the fall of the Berlin Wall. The series premiered on

on 19 August 2022. It was renewed for a second season in September 2022.

Synopsis

In 1987, Kleo Straub, a top performing East German Stasi assassin, is falsely imprisoned for leaking classified information to a

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

informant after successfully assassinating a double-agent on a West Berlin club, ''Big Eden''. In 1990, after the demolition of the Berlin Wall, Straub is released due to

general amnesty Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offic ...

for political prisoners. Losing her honor after being imprisoned for roughly 3 years, she plans to exact revenge on the conspirators who framed her whilst finding secrets behind her imprisonment. Meanwhile, Sven Petzold, a under-appreciated fraud policeman rediscovers a 1987 murder cold-case enacted by Kleo, leading him to impede Kleo multiple times on her vengeance quest.

Cast

as Kleo Straub, an unofficial East German Stasi assassin who was imprisoned for an alleged act of treason. * Dimitrij Schaad as Sven Petzold, an underachieving West Berlin

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

who initially worked in

fraud In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compens ...

section. * Julius Feldmeier as Thilo, current occupant of Kleo's old apartment who came from West Germany. * Vladimir Burlakov as Andi Wolf, a former East German Stasi supervisor who was romantically involved with Kleo. (Season 1) *

Vincent Redetzki Vincent Redetzki (born 1 April 1992) is a German actor. Career Redetzki was born in Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany. At the age of nine, he played his first small role in a play at the ''Theater am Kurfürstendamm''. Two years later in 2003, ...

as Uwe Mittig, an unofficial East German Stasi agent who were an accomplice of Kleo during her mission in 1987.

Recurring

* Jürgen Heinrich as Otto Straub, an East German Stasi general commander who is Kleo's grandfather. * Alessija Lause as Anne Geike, a West German officer who works with

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

to capture Kleo. * Yun Huang as Min Sun, a Chinese officer who works under Anne Geike. * Marta Sroka as Anja, Andi Wolf's spouse who is pregnant with his child. *

Steffi Kühnert Steffi Kühnert (born 19 February 1963) is a German actress. She appeared in more than eighty films since 1978. Since November 2009, she has been a professor of acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Art, where she was previously a guest l ...

Margot Honecker Margot Honecker (née Feist; 17 April 1927 – 6 May 2016) was an East German politician who was an influential member of that country's Communist government until 1989. From 1963 until 1989, she was Minister of National Education (''Ministerin f ...

, an East German politician who is Kleo's aunt. * Thandi Sebe as Jenny Schneider, Sven's wife who becomes emotionally distant from him. * Taner Sahintürk as Freddy Lembech, Sven's friend and colleague who works at police station.

Guest

* Gunnar Helm as

Erich Mielke Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (''Ministerium für Staatsicherheit'' – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 u ...

, an East German official who is involved in Kleo's imprisonment. * Alexander Hörbe as Ludger Wiezcorek, a former East German colonel who was in charge of Kleo's mission in 1987. * Harry Schäfer as Alexander Belov, a

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

agent who has made a deal with Wiezcorek.

Production

Development

On February 8 2022, Netflix had ordered ''Kleo'' as a part of nineteen German-language productions worth 571 million dollars. Hanno Hackfort, Richard Kropf, and Bob Konrad, co-creators of ''

4 Blocks ''4 Blocks'' is a German drama series. It stars Kida Khodr Ramadan as Ali "Toni" Hamadi, the leader of a drug cartel in Berlin- Neukölln which has strong connections with the Arab crime families including his clan. He is forced to postpone his pl ...

'', were revealed as series creators, writers, and executive producers, with Elena Senft set to co-write the series. In addition, Michael Souvigner and Till Derenbach of Zeitsprung Pictures were also announced as co-producers of the series, while Viviane Andereggen and Jano Ben Chaabane set to direct the series.

Casting

Upon series announcement on February 8, 2022, Jella Hasse was announced as the titular lead of the series.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

for the series reportedly began on June 2021, with

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Eisenhüttenstadt Eisenhüttenstadt (literally "ironworks city" in German; , dsb, Pśibrjog) is a town in the Oder-Spree district of the state of Brandenburg, Germany, on the border with Poland. East Germany founded the city in 1950. It was known as Stalinstadt ( ...

, and

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

revealed as filming locations.

Reception

The first season of ''Kleo'' received positive reviews from critics. Rebecca Nicholson of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' rated the series 3/5 stars criticizing its similarity with ''

Killing Eve ''Killing Eve'' is a British spy thriller television series, produced in the United Kingdom by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America and BBC Three. The series follows Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a British intelligence investigator tasked with capturi ...

'', but praised the series casting, characterization, screenplay and pacing, with a consensus of "nevertheless an entertaining, highly stylized and cinematic adventure". Maria Hunstig of ''Vogue Germany'' praised the series casting, screenplay and pacing, calling ''Kleo'' "fast, hard, and incredibly entertaining". Joel Keller of ''Decider'' similarly praised the series pacing and acting, particularly lauding Jella Hasse's performance.

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

also praised the series, calling it "a breath of fresh air - suspenseful and also very funny".

References

External links

* * 2022 German television series debuts Action television series German-language Netflix original programming German action television series Television series about conspiracy theories Television series based on actual events {{Germany-tv-prog-stub