Clash of Futures (2018)

History comes alive in the 8-part docu-series Clash of Futures (2018), not to be confused with the PG-13 fantasy Clash of the Titans (2010). Under the direction of Jan Peter and Gunnar Dedio, this multilingual saga follows the fates of famous and infamous Europeans from the end of World War I in 1918 to the German invasion of Poland in 1939. As an offshoot of 14 - Diaries of the Great War (2014), the period piece uses journals, memoirs and letters to shed light on Austrian architect Edith Wellspacher (Roxane Duran), British fascist/writer Diana Mitford (Jude Mack), French journalist May Picqueray (Solène Rigot), German filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch (Roland Bonjour), Italian inventor/politician Silvio Crespi (Gennaro Cannavacciuolo), Polish actress Pola Negri (Michalina Olszanska), and Russian soldier/writer Marina Yurlova (Natalia Witmer). Personal accounts of Max Wachstein (Wolfgang Menardi) and Reisinger (Gerhard Roiß) seem even more personal when they go full frontal at a nudist pool in episode 5. Not only do we get to view their collective pecs and junk, we can see their bare buns! If that’s not arousing enough, the extras are in the buff. Alas, the skin on display in episode 6 is not so enjoyable. When Communist politician Hans Beimler (Jan Krauter) is falsely accused of being a terrorist, he is taken to Dachau in 1933 due to the rise of dictator Adolf Hitler (Stefan Puntigam). Sure, Mr. Krauter flashes his abs, shaft and ass but it’s while being beaten. Needless to say, Mr. Man would rather make love than war.