“Black Fruits”
Series about black, queer people in Germany
Lamin Leroy Gibba in “Black Fruits”.
© Maïscha Souaga
With young artists in front of and behind the camera: The new ARD series “Black Fruits” gives insights into the lives of black, queer people.
ARD wants to take a self-confident and idiosyncratic look “at the realities of life and experiences of black and queer people in Germany” with a new series. Filming is currently underway in Hamburg for the format “Black Fruits” (working title), which is being created for the ARD media library. The public broadcaster association announced this in a press release.
“Black Fruits”: The story of the ARD media library series
The focus of “Black Fruits” is Lalo. He is young, queer and black. The man in his mid-twenties is thrown off course by the death of his father. He wants to suppress the loss with increased activism. This not only changes his life, but also that of his friends. For example, there is his best friend Karla, who is pursuing a career in the financial world but feels exhausted and lonely. Together, Lalo and Karla drift through the “trials and tribulations of growing up, between careers, dating and family, looking for their place in life,” as the press release says.
The stars of “Black Fruits”
Lamin Leroy Gibba (29) not only plays the main role of Lalo. He also developed the concept of the series and served as head writer. Gibba studied acting and film in New York before moving to… Germany theater played. He was also seen in films, such as “Just something beautiful” by Karoline Herfurth (39). Lamin Leroy Gibba was part of the ActOut initiative in 2021, in which actors with an LGBTQ+ background campaigned for more diversity in the film and television scene.
Melodie Simina (26) mimes Karla. The Swiss native plays, among other things, Doris Dörrie’s (68) “Freibad” and the Netflix series “Sleeping Dogs”. Black filmmakers are also mainly active behind the camera, for example the Austrian-Nigerian photographer David Uzochukwu (24) as director.
“It is very important to us to work with creatives and makers from the BIPoC and LGBTQI+ community and to give their stories and perspectives visibility and presence on ARD,” Christoph Pellander is quoted as saying. His production company ARD Degeto is behind the project.