Streaming hit: “Exterritorial”-The most successful German Netflix film

After only one month in the program in Frankfurt am Main, the German action film “Exterritorial” playing in the world is one of the world’s most successful Netflix films.

Less than two weeks, the thriller with Jeanne Goursaud needed to become the most successful German Netflix film: “Exterritorial” therefore won both the Oscar-winning anti-war film “in the West” (2022) by Edward Berger and the action horror film “Blood Red Sky” (2021).

In the list of all Netflix films (Netflix only calls the calls in the first three months), the work of director Christian Zübert is currently in 16th place with 76.3 million; In the list of non-English Netflix films even in sixth place-and the trend is rising.

The action thriller produced by Constantin Film plays in Frankfurt, but was mainly shot in Vienna. The focus of the film complex is not available in Frankfurt.

That’s what “Exterritorial” is about

“When her son disappears without a trace in a US consulate, the former soldier Sara does everything possible to find him-and encounters a dangerous conspiracy,” Netflix writes.

Described in more detail: Ex-Bundeswehr soldier Sara Wulf (Goursaud), who is traumatized by her commitment in the Afghanistan war, wants to move to the USA. With her son Josh (Rickson Guy da Silva), she requested a work permit in the American consulate in Frankfurt. But the six -year -old suddenly disappears there. And nobody wants to have seen Josh at all. He can also not be seen on video recordings. Sara is asked to go. But she knows that German authorities have no handling in the US consulate because it is exteratorial area. This means that the German state has no control here. When she goes, she may never see her son again. But is there Josh at all? Is the head of the consumption to trust Eric Kynch (Dougray Scott)?

Film contents compact: A German beats up against partly evil Americans.

Filmmaker Christian Zübert (51) came up with the idea for “Exterritorial” through his own experience in Frankfurt, where he turned the second season of the ZDF series “Bad Banks” in 2019. Then he wanted to fly to the United States with his wife and children. For the exhibition of biometric passports two days before departure, they had to go to the US consulate.

“We spent almost eight hours there,” Züber said the “FilmStarts” portal. The children were quite young at the time. “There was really this indoor playground from the film and so we left it there for a while,” he said. “And while I had all these blatant security regulations, through which a completely different wind blew around me, I thought:” If I wanted to pick up our children right now and the Americans say that they were never here, then you couldn’t have a chance at all. “They could have just kicked out and done. That was the original idea with which everything started.”

This is a screenwriter and director Christian Zübert

Zübert (“Lambbock – everything in hand”, “Arthur’s law”) wrote on screenplays such as “girls, girls” (2001), “Neue Vahr Süd” (2010), “Steam noodle blues” (2013) and “The Collini case” (2019). He was the director at the ZDF series “KDD-Criminal Insurance Service”.

He also directed at a “crime scene” – and that at the Munich “crime scene awarded with a Grimme price: never be free again” (2010). The thriller revolved around the morally reprehensible acquittal of a sex murderer and is one of the best “crime scene” thrillers for many.

Zübert names action films of the 1970s as role models for his cracker for his cracker “Exterritorial” in the “FilmStarts” interview, such as works by William Friedkin and John Frankenheimer – because they are so “incredibly physical”.

This is the main actress Jeanne Goursaud

The German-French Jeanne Goursaud (29) has been in front of the camera since her youth. She became known as an aggressive Thusnelda in the Netflix series “Barbarians” (2 seasons since 2020). In “Exterritorial” she plays excellently a caring mother with psychological problems. Sara fights with full physical effort. She divides and gets a lot. It’s really worth seeing.

That could be the global secret of the thriller

Among other things, director Zübert explains the success of the film that everyone can empathize with Sara: “Our heroine has a military background, but is first a relatively normal woman, i.e. not a drug dealer, no corrupt cop or other popular stereotype of action films.”