'Homeland' in Berlin
June 2, 2015
There can be few more appropriate settings, however, to a drama that walks a thrilling tightrope between international espionage, scheming double agents and the constant threat of war. The fifth series shifts from Kabul to Berlin, where agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) is now working for a private security firm.
The Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning show will also star a number of German actors, including Sebastian Koch as a German philanthropist, and Alexander Fehling as Mathison's new love interest. The fifth series will also see the return of actors Rupert Friend and Mandy Patinkin, reprising the roles of Peter Quinn and Saul Berenson, respectively. The new season is set to premiere in September 2015.
"Homeland" has regularly filmed in international settings, although regularly uses alternative locations as stand-ins - including Haifa in Israel for Beirut, Puerto Rico for Venezuela and South Africa for Afghanistan. With the backdrop of its gritty 20th-century history and contemporary role as political and technological nerve-center, however, the entire fifth series will be filmed and set in the German capital.
The Berlin-Brandenburg Media Board has announced a contribution of one million euros to the production, as part of a campaign to lure top international film and TV makers to the region.
"Homeland" will also shoot at Babelsberg Studio, the oldest large-scale film studio complex in the world, dating to 1911. The studio was the setting for Fritz Lang's 1927 masterpiece "Metropolis" and "The Blue Angel" (1930) starring Marlene Dietrich as well as, more recently, "The Reader" (2007), "Inglorious Basterds" (2009), and hit series "The Hunger Games."