''Transatlantic'' is a historical drama television

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

created by

Anna Winger Anna Winger (née LeVine; born 1970) is an American writer, producer, screenwriter, and photographer who lives in Berlin, Germany. She is creator of the television dramas ''Deutschland 83,'' ''Deutschland 86,'' ''Deutschland 89,'' and '' Unorthod ...

and Daniel Hendler, based on the 2019 novel ''The Flight Portfolio'' by

Julie Orringer Julie Orringer (born June 12, 1973) is an American writer and lecturer. She attended Cornell University and the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She was born in Miami, Florida and now lives in Brooklyn with ...

. The novel explores the historic Emergency Rescue Committee that operated in

Marseilles Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, Spain, and Portugal in 1940 after the fall of France. The series includes or refers to well-known artists or scholars of the time who were saved by the Committee or interacted with it. The series closed the 2023 Series Mania festival in March, ahead of its

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 ...

premiere on 7 April 2023.

Cast and characters

Main

Gillian Jacobs Gillian MacLaren Jacobs (; born October 19, 1982) is an American actress and director. She is known for her roles as Britta Perry on the NBC sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015) and Mickey Dobbs on the Netflix romantic comedy series ''Love'' (2016� ...

Mary Jayne Gold Mary Jayne Gold (1909 – October 5, 1997) was an American heiress who played an important role helping European Jews and intellectuals escape Nazi Germany in 1940-1941, during World War II. Early years and education Born in Chicago, Il ...

* Lucas Englander as

Albert Hirschman Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Albert ...

Cory Michael Smith Cory Michael Smith (born November 14, 1986) is an American actor, known for his role as Edward Nygma / The Riddler in the Fox television drama series '' Gotham''. He appeared in '' Camp X-Ray'' in 2014. He appeared in 2013 in '' Breakfast at ...

Varian Fry Varian Mackey Fry (October 15, 1907 – September 13, 1967) was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France that helped approximately 2,000 to 4,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees to escape Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. ...

Ralph Amoussou Ralph Amoussou (born 3 May 1989) is a French actor. He is known for his roles as Séby on the Netflix series ''Marianne'' (2019), Samuel Becker on the OCS series '' Missions'' (2019-2021), and Paul on the Netflix series ''Transatlantic'' (2023) ...

as Paul Kandjo * Deleila Piasko as Lisa Fittko * Amit Rahav as Thomas Lovegrove * Grégory Montel as Philippe Frot *

Corey Stoll Corey Stoll (born March 14, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Congressman Peter Russo on the Netflix political thriller series ''House of Cards'' (2013–2016), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination in 2013, ...

as Graham Patterson

Recurring

Moritz Bleibtreu Moritz Johann Bleibtreu (; was born in Munich, Germany on August 13, 1971. He has worked over the years as a film actor, voice actor, and film director. Bleibtreu has been a successful actor in many movies such as '' Run Lola Run, Das Experimen ...

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mys ...

Alexander Fehling Alexander Fehling (born 29 March 1981) is a German film and stage actor. He is best known for portraying Staff Sgt. Wilhelm in the 2009 Quentin Tarantino World War II film ''Inglourious Basterds'' and Jonas Hollander in the Showtime original ser ...

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...

Louis-Do de Lencquesaing Louis-Do de Lencquesaing (born 25 December 1963) is a French actor and film director. His daughter, Alice de Lencquesaing, is also an actress. Filmography As an actor *''Les dernières heures du millénaire'' (1990, Short) *''Madame Bovary'' ( ...

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

Hande Kodja Hande Kodja (born 6 February 1984) is a Belgian actress. Biography Kodja was born in Brussels, Belgium, on 6 February 1984 to a father of Russian-Turkish descent and a Belgian mother. She began her artistic training in Waterloo, Belgium with mu ...

Jacqueline Lamba Jacqueline Lamba (17 November 1910 – 20 July 1993) was a French painter and surrealist artist. She was married to the surrealist André Breton. Biography Lamba was born in the Paris suburb of Saint-Mandé, on 17 November 1910 (contrary to a ...

Jonas Nay Jonas Nay (, born 20 September 1990) is a German actor and musician known for starring as Martin Rauch in ''Deutschland 83'' and its sequels, ''Deutschland 86'' and ''Deutschland 89''. Early life Jonas Nay was born in Lübeck in 1990 days be ...

Walter Mehring Walter Mehring (29 April 1896 – 3 October 1981) was a German author and one of the most prominent satirical authors in the Weimar Republic. He was banned during the Third Reich, and fled the country. Early life He was the son of the trans ...

* Luke Thompson as Hiram "Harry" Bingham *

Jodhi May Jodhi Tania May (''née'' Hakim-Edwards; 8 May 1975) is a British actress. She remains the youngest recipient of the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, for ''A World Apart'' (1988). Her other film appearances include ''The Last ...

Peggy Guggenheim Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down with t ...

* Rafaela Nicolay as Margaux * Birane Ba as Jacques "Petit" Kandjo *

Henriette Confurius Henriette Confurius (born 5 February 1991) is a German actress known to international audiences for her role in the Netflix sci-fi television series ''Tribes of Europa''. Life and career Henriette Confurius' father is German-Dutch writer Gerr ...

as Lena Fischmann *

Lolita Chammah Lolita Chammah (born 1 October 1983) is a French actress. Background Chammah is the daughter of and Isabelle Huppert. She grew up in Paris and already had her first roles during childhood. Lolita Chammah has one son, Gabriel Merz Chammah. At ...

as Lorène Letoret * Yoli Fuller as Souleymane Toure * Nadiv Molcho as Bill Freier * Morgane Ferru as

Ursula Hirschmann Ursula Hirschmann (2 September 1913 – 8 January 1991) was a German anti-fascist activist and an advocate of European federalism. Life and career Hirschmann was born into a middle-class Jewish family to Carl Hirschmann and Hedwig Marcuse in B ...

Alexa Karolinski Alexa Karolinski (born 1984) is a German writer, director and producer whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television. She is the creator of the television drama '' Unorthodox'' (2020). Filmmaking career Alexa received an MF ...

Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century. Arendt was born ...

Hanno Koffler Hanno Koffler (born March 25, 1980) is a German actor and musician. His most famous films include '' Summer Storm'', ''Krabat'' and ''Free Fall''. He also starred in the Oscar-nominated film, ''Never Look Away'' (2018), directed by Florian Henc ...

as Hans Fittko * Yulia Antoshchuk as Ukrainian Woman * Ian Turiak as Wealthy Businessman

Episodes

Production

Development

''Transatlantic'' was the first project announced in September 2021 under the creative partnership of

and

's Berlin-based production company Studio Airlift. The seven-part series is created by Winger and Daniel Hendler, and produced by Winger and Camille McCurry. Stéphanie Chuat, Véronique Reymond and Mia Meyer led the directing team. In a March 2023 interview with ''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, with ...

'' ahead of ''Transatlantics Séries Mania screening, Winger said she took inspiration from the film ''

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

'' (1942).

Casting

Casting was reportedly under way as of January 2022. The cast were announced in March 2022, with

, Grégory Montel,

, and

set to star alongside Lucas Englander,

, Deleila Piasko, and Amit Rahav.

, Luke Thompson,

, Rafaela Nicolay and

round out the cast.

Filming

Principal photography began on location in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, France in February 2022. Although the real Hôtel Splendide in Marseille is now used as administrative offices, producers were able to modify the environment and film on location at No. 31 Boulevard d'Athènes. The scenes depicting Villa Air-Bel were filmed at Château Mont Vallon outside the town of Vitrolles.

Reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

, assigned the miniseries a score of 64 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". However, the series has been criticised for its historical inaccuracies.Price, Richard (4 June 2023)
"Resistance Is Futile"
''Labour Hub''. Retrieved 4 June 2023.

References

External links

* * {{Netflix original current series 2023 French television series debuts 2023 German television series debuts 2023 French television series endings 2023 German television series endings French English-language television shows Netflix original programming French-language television shows German-language television shows Television series based on actual events Television series set in 1940 Television shows set in Marseille Works about refugees World War II television drama series German English-language television shows