Netflix’s action-packed yet unconventional spy series “Unfamiliar,” which follows a married couple of former secret agents who are suddenly forced to deal with a deadly threat from their past, topped the streamer’s non-English programming worldwide in its first week.
The Gaumont German production, which was launched on February 5th, centers on Meret (Suzanne Wolff) and Simon (Felix Kramer), former top agents who run a secret hideout in Berlin. When a long-buried threat becomes reality, they face contract killers, Russian agents, and their former employer, the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), all while trying to protect a secret that could cost them their families and lives.
“En Familiar” is Netflix’s second major high-end show from Gaumont, Germany, following the Roman action series “Barbarians,” which premiered on Netflix in 2020. The work on this program led to “Unfamilia.”
Paul Coates, Andreas Barres
Gaumont
Creator Paul Coates was scheduled to write season 3 of Barbarians before it was canceled. He then pitched the idea for a spy series and continued his collaboration with Gaumont’s senior executive producer Andreas Bareis.
In an interview with Variety, Coates said his views on the show reflect his own experiences and stage in life.
“From my point of view, I’m obviously approaching the same age as Meret and Simon in the play, and I felt like I needed to write about something that you guys know. It’s not really about spy work, it’s about (being) in your 50s with the physical changes that come with age. I think it was similar for Andreas. I’m a spy. I love the show, I love crime, and that’s probably the genre I mostly write in. And this made it feel very different. It gives us an original feel, showing people who are our age, and telling our experiences.
“For me, every good spy series has an element of high drama. What we found particularly appealing was that the main character 2 Because their work, the confrontations and the fights, are very physical. And at our age, it’s not easy to fight for your life. That’s why we wanted to really embrace and feel their age as part of the story. It adds more interest, more authenticity, and ultimately more grounding.”
Producers sought direct support from the BND to create the series.
“They were very supportive,” Beais said. “Believability was important to us, so we shared the story with BND. We wanted to create a series that was plausible and grounded, something that could happen in real life rather than pure fiction, especially for the German audience, which tends to be very critical in this regard. BND provided us with a huge amount of information, and the actors also had the opportunity to ask questions directly.”
The production was also able to film outdoor scenes outside BND’s headquarters in Berlin while adhering to strict security protocols.
“We were only allowed to film on Saturdays and Sundays because they didn’t want us to be filming people casually coming out of the BND building,” Beais recalls. “Yes, there were quite a few restrictions, but of course that’s to be expected. It’s BND, after all. You can’t treat them like a drop-in restaurant. Yet they were incredibly friendly and amazingly accommodating and really helped us make sure everything felt as authentic as possible.”
For Gaumont, “Unfamiliar” was perfectly in line with the type of ambitious international storytelling the company is attracted to, and it immediately felt like the right project for the group, Beais said.
“What really excites us is the world we’ve created here. It’s something very special. And if you look at our past series, ‘The Barbarian,’ ‘Narcos,’ ‘Lupin’ — each one lives in its own different world. That’s what we’re always looking for: these unique worlds where great stories can truly unfold.
“That’s why Unfamiliar felt so appealing to us and why we wanted to bring it to Netflix. Netflix is a partner who shares our desire to elevate the story and make it even bigger and more powerful. So this was a very natural step, and thankfully, everything worked out.”
“This is already Netflix’s second major German series after Barbarians. In a way, it feels like returning to a familiar partner. We are familiar with Netflix’s DNA, how they work and how they think about storytelling, and that experience has given us a lot of confidence heading into this project,” Behris added.
To develop the story, Coates was initially inspired by Tariq Saleh’s action thriller The Contractor, starring Chris Pine, particularly in a key scene where the main character is beaten and shot. As he fell to the ground injured, he was given a phone number and told to call.
“The next scene is with Eddie Marsan, a wonderful British actor who I absolutely love. He was running this hideout in the middle of nowhere, and I was transfixed by him. He was in the movie for about 10 minutes at most. Where did he go while he was gone? How did he get to this point? And none of those questions were answered…but that’s where the idea came from.”
If he was going to tell such a story, Coates explains, it would be about someone his age who is married, not a loner. “And Berlin was the obvious place. If you’re going to tell a spy story, you should tell it in Berlin.
When casting the series, Coates and Beice found ideal actors in Wolff and Kramer.
“I mean, look,” Coates said. “Look! A lot of people saw it. A lot of people wanted to be a part of this. It was such a compliment. But we just saw them together and that was it.”
Directed by Lennart Ruff and Filip Reinemann, “Enfamiliar” features a large ensemble cast including Henry Hübchen, Samuel Finzi, Lawrence Rapp, Seneb Saleh, Natalia Belitsky, Andreas Piečman, Geniya Rykova, Sina Martens, Maha Bonsu, Anand Batvileg Cürnbaatar, and Aaron Altaras.
