RTL Group | Lisbon / Potdam , 03/12/2018

UFA Fiction Production Wins European Award

Subject: Media & Services
Country: International
Category: Prizes & Awards

A robot kills a person? When you think about it, this is already possible today if one has the appropriate criminal intent and knowledge about how to program industrial robots. Set against this background, UFA Fiction produced an unusual episode of the ZDF series “SOKO Leipzig”. It was recently rewarded with the European Science TV and New Media Award in Lisbon, an award dedicated to the integration of science topics in TV shows.

The episode titled “Ein Fall für Rettig” of the ZDF series “SOKO Leipzig” won a very special award last Sunday in Lisbon: the European Science TV and New Media Award in the “TV Drama/Docu-Drama” category. The crime series produced by UFA Fiction was represented at the European Science TV and Media Festival in Lisbon, which is dedicated to the integration of science topics in TV shows and audiovisual media, for the first time.

In fact, the award-winning episode not only combines a fictitious crime story with science but also deals with an explosive topic: a programmable machine, in this case an industrial robot, becomes a perpetrator. The award is therefore also an honor for the screenplay written by Jeanet Pfitzer, Roland Heep, and Frank Koopmann which manages to unite scientific precision and fiction.

Who programmed the robot?

In “SOKO Leipzig – Ein Fall für Rettig”, Mister Rettig, played by Daniel Steiner, becomes the key character. At the crime scene, he quickly finds signs of manipulated computer code. Now the question is: Who reprogrammed the robot and killed the director of the “Mondo Robotics” research lab? An encounter with his neighbor Anne (Lena Dörrie) turns the investigation entirely upside down and completely destroys his credibility.

“SOKO Leipzig – Ein Fall für Rettig” is a production of UFA Fiction commissioned by ZDF. The producers were Jörg Winger and Henriette Lippold, with Katharina Rietz as executive producer and Toni Heye as junior producer. Jörg Mielich directed the episode, and Henning Jessel was responsible for the art direction. Matthias Pfeifer was the responsible editor for ZDF.