Transatlantic (TV series)

Transatlantic is a historical drama television miniseries created by Anna Winger and Daniel Hendler, based on the 2019 novel The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer. The novel explores the historic Emergency Rescue Committee that operated in Marseilles, Spain, and Portugal in 1940 after the fall of France. The series includes or refers to well-known artists or scholars of the time who were saved by the Committee or interacted with it. The series closed the 2023 Series Mania festival in March, ahead of its Netflix premiere on 7 April 2023.

Main

 * Gillian Jacobs as Mary Jayne Gold
 * Lucas Englander as Albert Hirschman
 * Cory Michael Smith as Varian Fry
 * Ralph Amoussou as Paul Kandjo
 * Deleila Piasko as Lisa Fittko
 * Amit Rahav as Thomas Lovegrove
 * Grégory Montel as Philippe Frot
 * Corey Stoll as Graham Patterson

Recurring

 * Moritz Bleibtreu as Walter Benjamin
 * Alexander Fehling as Max Ernst
 * Louis-Do de Lencquesaing as André Breton
 * Hande Kodja as Jacqueline Lamba
 * Jonas Nay as Walter Mehring
 * Luke Thompson as Hiram "Harry" Bingham
 * Jodhi May as Peggy Guggenheim
 * Rafaela Nicolay as Margaux
 * Birane Ba as Jacques "Petit" Kandjo
 * Henriette Confurius as Lena Fischmann
 * Lolita Chammah as Lorène Letoret
 * Yoli Fuller as Souleymane Toure
 * Nadiv Molcho as Bill Freier
 * Morgane Ferru as Ursula Hirschmann
 * Alexa Karolinski as Hannah Arendt
 * Hanno Koffler as Hans Fittko
 * Yulia Antoshchuk as Ukrainian Woman
 * Ian Turiak as Wealthy Businessman

Development
Transatlantic was the first project announced in September 2021 under the creative partnership of Netflix and Anna Winger's Berlin-based production company Studio Airlift. The seven-part series is created by Winger and Daniel Hendler, and produced by Winger and Camille McCurry. Stéphanie Chuat, Véronique Reymond and Mia Meyer led the directing team. In a March 2023 interview with Deadline Hollywood ahead of Transatlantic's Séries Mania screening, Winger said she took inspiration from the film Casablanca (1942).

Casting
Casting was reportedly under way as of January 2022. The cast were announced in March 2022, with Gillian Jacobs, Grégory Montel, Cory Michael Smith, and Corey Stoll set to star alongside Lucas Englander, Ralph Amoussou, Deleila Piasko, and Amit Rahav.

Moritz Bleibtreu, Alexander Fehling, Jonas Nay, Lolita Chammah, Luke Thompson, Jodhi May, Rafaela Nicolay and Henriette Confurius round out the cast.

Filming
Principal photography began on location in Marseille, France in February 2022.

Although the real Hôtel Splendide in Marseille is now used as administrative offices, producers were able to modify the environment and film on location at No. 31 Boulevard d'Athènes. The scenes depicting Villa Air-Bel were filmed at Château Mont Vallon outside the town of Vitrolles.

Reception
Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the miniseries a score of 64 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". However, the series has been criticised for its historical inaccuracies.