Tribes of Europa is a German sci-fi television series created by Philip Koch that premiered on Netflix on 19 February 2021.[1][2]
Koch has confirmed the show won't be returning for a second season.[3]
The story is set in 2074, 43 years after a mysterious global technological failure caused nations to slip into anomie and fracture into dystopian warring tribal microstates. On the European continent, there are hundreds of tribes, but the story focuses on three: the Origines, a tiny, peaceful forest tribe; the Crows, an aggressive warrior society; and the Crimsons, a militaristic society that aims at reuniting Europe by negotiation.
Three Origine siblings, a young woman, a young man, and their teenage brother, find their peaceful existence in the forest shattered when a pilot from Atlantis crashes an advanced hoverjet in their territory. When the siblings rescue the injured pilot, the youngest sibling recovers a mysterious cube with advanced technology from the wreck.
The Crows invade the Origine village to secure the technology, massacring most of the inhabitants. The older brother, Kiano, is sent to the Crows' slave factories. The sister, Liv, is knocked out in the massacre and comes to when Crows are searching for the cube. She shoots a female Crow warrior with a crossbow, and both are taken prisoner by the Crimson army. The younger brother, Elja, flees from the massacre with the cube, which is sought after by Crows, Crimson, and other powerful and resourceful figures.
The series prominently featured the World War II Monument to the uprising of the people of Kordun and Banija in Croatia.[6] Attention was brought to this usage following complaints from some visitors who were barred from accessing the site by security guards.[7][6] The memorial was closed off to the public for several months during filming, as the production crew claimed to have permits from the Ministry of Culture and Media and the municipality.[8]
American historical researcher and writer Donald Niebyl criticized the "exotification and orientalization of Yugoslav architecture" and warned about "sensitive memorial spaces being employed and decontextualized in the process of creating art and film".[8] In her article "Tribes of New Fascism", Bojana Videkanić from the University of Waterloo described her "strong disgust" towards the usage of the monument as "a playground for the sadistic imagination" as well as due to "broader political issues that this kind of representation opens up".[9] On 21 December 2021, Dubravka Ugrešić critiqued the use of Vojin Bakić's monument by the "cheap Netflix series Tribes of Europa" in her New Year article for Novosti.[10] Večernji list's Denis Derk asked the Croatian public, "Are we ashamed that Bakić's monument is the backdrop for the European apocalypse?", while Jutarnji list's Jurica Pavičić described the landscape of a dystopian future as an unintentional allegory of modern-day Croatia.[7][11] Aneta Vladimirov from the Serb National Council expressed unease over profit-making at the memorial site to which producers are not connected in any emotional way.[6]
Despite negative public reaction, it was noted that the production crews cleaned up the site, including removing decades-old graffiti from the walls.[9][8]
