Munich, Germany – With outstanding ratings of up to 6.6 million viewers, Beta Film’s post-World War II drama Line of Separation follows in the footsteps of the success of Generation War. The third and last instalment of the emotionally gripping mini-series, broadcasted between 4 and 7 January on Germany’s ZDF, was the strongest with a prime-time-winning 21 percent market share, almost reaching the numbers of the outstanding International Emmy Award winner of 2014. Produced by Academy Award winner Wiedemann & Berg (Lives of Others), Gabriela Sperl, ZDF, Wilma and Beta Film, Line of Separation depicts the life in a town torn between Eastern and Western occupation zones after the end of WW II and is inspired by true historical events. The 3×90’ mini with its renown cast such as Martina Gedeck (Live of Others, The Baader Meinhof-Complex), Alexander Held (Sophie Scholl, Schindler’s List) and Heiner Lauterbach (Hindenburg) was hailed by German media as a compelling contribution to the films dealing with this era such as Generation War and as a “very good film about good and less good Germans” (Focus online). 2015 commemorates the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Also among the top-scorers of the present holiday season in Germany was the 2×90’ version of the box-office hit The Physician, starring Ben Kingsley, Stellan Skarsgard, Olivier Martinez and Tom Payne. The Physician was prime-time winner on both nights (29/30 December) on ARD with up to 7.5 million viewers and a market share of up to 23 percent. Only one year ago at Christmas, The Physician swept the box-office at German cinemas, grossing an overwhelming 40 million Euros. Based on the bestselling novels by Noah Gordon and directed by Philipp Stoelzl (North Face), the show by UFA Cinema in coproduction with ARD Degeto and Beta Cinema follows the penniless orphan Rob Cole, who leaves 11th-century England on a long, dangerous and exhausting journey to study medicine under the great Persian scholar Ibn Sina.