Sumith Prasad
Netflix’s thriller series ‘Kleo’ revolves around an assassin named Kleo Straub, who fulfills a high-profile mission by killing an influential army officer. Even though Kleo completes the mission as per the instructions of her superiors, she is wrongfully convicted and imprisoned. After getting released from prison, Kleo sets out on a killing spree, murdering officers who are involved in her arrest. The historical show succeeds in transporting the viewers to its stylish and engrossing setting, along with Kleo’s astounding attempts to find the truth about her imprisonment. Since the narrative of the show progresses against the backdrop of several historical events, one must be intrigued to know more about its setting. Well, let us share everything you need to know about the same! SPOILERS AHEAD.
A Divided City: Berlin in the Late 80s
‘Kleo’ begins with the titular character Kleo Straub’s secret mission that happens in 1987 in West Berlin. Kleo gets into the western half of the city to kill the army officer to stop him from passing sensitive information concerning her country, East Germany, to a West German informant. The German series depicts how the division of East Germany and West Germany polarized the German people, making them think they were superior to the other nations. Sven Petzold and Anne Geike’s contempt towards East German people seemingly represents the notions of time as well.
Kleo gets arrested in 1987 when East and West Germany severely compete against each other ideologically. She learns about the fall of the Berlin Wall as the demolition of the same begins in 1990 while she is in prison. In the same year, German reunification happens, uniting East and West Germany. Kleo gets released from prison in 1990 along with other political prisoners imprisoned by East Germany. The year also marks the end of East Germany’s existence as a communist-socialist nation, which paved the way for the emergence of anti-communist notions in reality. Sven’s critique of communism while the narrative is set in 1990 is closer to reality as well.
Kleo and Sven’s discovery of the red suitcase of the murdered East German army officer leads them to a pact signed by United States president Ronald Reagan and East German leader Erich Honecker. The discovery leads the viewers to the late years of the Cold War, the late 1980s, and President Reagan’s involvement in the same. Even though the majority of the narrative is set in 1990 in Berlin, foreign settings are used as well. After framing his death, Colonel Ludger Wieczorek runs away to Mallorca, the largest island in the archipelago of Balearic Islands, a part of Spain, located in the Mediterranean.
Another setting of ‘Kleo’ includes the country of Chile, where Comrade Ramona and Margot Honecker hide the red suitcase to protect it from Kleo. The South American nation had a solid socialist presence at the time, which influenced Margot to send the suitcase to the country. The UFO speculations that were prevalent in the 1990s are also represented in the show through the character Thilo, who waits for an alien spaceship to take him to his “home planet.”
Read More: Is Netflix’s Kleo Based on a True Story?
