DOCUMENTARY SERIES TO RUN IN THE FICTION COMPETITION

Documentary series "Reeperbahn Special Unit FD65" that has already won the Best Docu-Series Award 2022 at the Berlin Series Festival celebrates its World Premiere at Filmfest Hamburg on October 6th.

Reeperbahn Special Unit 65 is the first documentary series to run in the fiction competition of the Hamburg International Film Festival.

The series is a production of a number of European TV-channels, OneGate Media & gebrueder beetz filmproduktion (the lasT one is responsible for such outstanding creative documentaries as The Cleaners, The Land of the Enlightened, and The Yes Men Are Revolting).

In five 45-minute long episodes, Reeperbahn Special Unit 65 tells the story of Germany’s first-ever police unit dedicated to combat organized crime: legendary Special Unit 65. The series is set in the 1980s amidst Hamburg’s notoriously famous Reeperbahn red-light-district, which has been coined “the planet’s most sinful mile” and second most famous street after Wall Street.

The series is embedded into the turbulent history of that century with HIV epidemic, cocaine wave and Ronald Reagan’s fight against organized crime. It takes a look at the cat-and-mouse game between Special Unit 65 and its illustrious adversaries: the 'Godfather of Reeperbahn’ Wilfrid Schulz, rivaling US Mafia and corrupt police officers, pimp gangs, Hells Angels and youth gangs as well as serial killer Werner Pinzner…

High-grade use of footage, both from the film archives and police ones, alongside the interviews with the participants and witnesses of events and energetic editing creates a narration the spectator is just not able to interrupt watching.

The soundtrack by Nils Kacirek is also released on all major platforms on the same day.