Cycling, rafting and climbing with the Alpine team on ZDF

Another feature film in front of beautiful alpine landscapes. Two even, a double today and next Thursday. Maybe even more, when the story arrives. Again – and yet very different. "The task was to develop a concept that is necessarily linked to the mountain and can not be played anywhere else," producer Gabriele Graf said in an interview with our editors. So, no doctor practicing in the mountains, no hotel in the Alps, no illegal dumping of toxic waste accidentally discovered in the mountains. Instead: mountain sports. Climbing, mountain biking, paragliding, white water rafting. "When selecting the main players, we paid particular attention to sportsmanship," explains Gabriele Graf. "All three had mountain experience and were ready to train before filming."

All three: Uli (Daniel Fritz), Martina (Johanna von Gutzeit) and Rupert (Daniel Gawlowski), old friends who, even young, have done nothing better than to live adventures in the mountains. Now, at age 30, they meet again. Uli, who lives with his Brazilian wife in the village, helps the parental farm and earns the necessary money by holding an unpopular job at the community office. Martina, who wants to set up a training center in France with her husband Jean-Luc, needs money and wants to sell her grandfather's old farm. And Rupert, Uli's brother, who travels the world as a professional climber and finds himself out of the door – broke and not in very good health. And all three have lost nothing of their enthusiasm for mountain sports.

Doubles, when it becomes too dangerous

And so the first episode begins with a quick mountain bike ride. Downhill, bold jumps included. How are you doing this? "The actors did a lot of things themselves," says Gabriele Graf. "But we always had duplicates on the set if there were too dangerous sequences." As in the world of mountain biking, for example. Just as there is driving – it can only professionals.

The rafting seems daring. "We have already trained with the actors," explains the producer. "During the shooting, they have not come out of the diving suit for three days." These scenes were also demanding for the cameramen. "We had an additional cameraman," Graf said. "In the white water, they lay down on two tires in front of the actors, went down the course in white water and transformed it."

Or climbing scenes. "In the first of two films, everyone has to cross a rope bridge over a very deep ravine.All the actors did it themselves – and all then said that they had to overcome their fear."

Team performance of a special kind

But not only the actors have been exposed to extreme situations. "The cameras, the audio engineering, the mask: everyone had to lug his heavy loads in the mountains," says Graf Graf. "It was a real team effort – there was always an extra hand ready, everyone was helping each other out." In real life, the Alpine team could be said.

The shooting on the "Alpine Team" mountain school was so elaborate. "Nevertheless, we had to cope with 21 days of filming, as much as a crime scene or another TV movie," says Graf. This is why it was important that the actors be trained. "Daniel Fritz, who plays the role of Uli, has long been climbing in a climbing center at his home in Cologne before shooting, which would not have been possible otherwise." when private interests and occupation merge. "Yes, that's why it would have been useless to hire actors for the film who prefer to sit on the couch privately and read books."

According to Gabriele Graf, when the first two films find their audience, the plans for the next film are already ready. "It would then be a winter movie," says Gabriele Graf. "When it comes, the three members of the Alpine team have already agreed to go on a ski vacation together and train hard."

Alpine Team: Thursday, November 1 and 8, 2018 at 8:15 pm on ZDF