Daniel Gerlach

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Film & TV

ANALYSIS, POLITICAL TALKS, DOCUMENTARIES

As an expert on the Middle East, North Africa and the Muslim world, Daniel Gerlach is a regular guest at German and international news media (ZDF, ARD, arte, Al Jazeera, DW, Welt TV, Deutschlandfunk and many others). He comments on current political affairs, gladly with a view on the respective cultural and historical context.
Gerlach advises production companies and TV stations and occasionally appears as an author, co-author, producer and host himself. From 2007 to 2012, Gerlach worked as a freelance author and director of documentaries on the history and present of the Middle East, including for the primetime history and discovery show TerraX. In 2022, ZDF and “arte” broadcast a multi-part series on the Middle East as the cradle of religions from antiquity until today with Gerlach as host.

documentations

In this ZDF series, Orientalist Daniel Gerlach sets out to trace the mysterious cultures of the Orient, which continue to exist in secret to this day and can be found among the magnificent ruins of lost empires.

The Last Secrets of the Middle East

Extract from the synopsis: As the cradle of three great monotheistic religions, the Middle East exerts a constant on the European audience. With current events, the region draws ever closer. Whereas many today associate the Middle East with violence, intolerance and sectarianism, the region still holds a remarkable religious diversity. How did this come into being and how can we trace it back to the Ancient Orient? Middle East expert Daniel Gerlach embarks on a discovery to hidden scenes of world history. The journey takes him from Turkey to Lebanon and Jordan, on to Iraq and via Egypt to Tunisia. At the places he visits, Gerlach traces down the origins of ancient religions.

What is it about the Yazidis, Druze and Mandaeans as the keepers of pre-Christian and pre-Islamic traditions? How much did ancient Middle Eastern beliefs shape our European culture? Gerlach attends fire ceremonies and mysterious religious rituals; he learns new things about the origins of good versus evil, truth versus lies, loyalty versus betrayal. He enquires about an obfuscated Islamic saviour, inspects what is probably the world’s most precious Koran manuscript, and finds himself in a sacred site on the Euphrates River, which is the destination of over 18 million pilgrims every year.
On this journey to lesser-known but all the more spectacular locations, he unravels the last secrets of the fascinating “Orient”, whose legacy helped Europe to rise.

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TV-Analyses

Daniel Gerlach regularly comments on and analyzes current events in the Arab world.