Tribes of Europa is a Netflix original series produced by Philip Koch, starring Henriette Confurius as Liv, Emilio Sakraya as Kiano, and David Ali Rashed as Elja, three siblings whose individual story lines show different aspects of the world of 2074, depicting a post-apocalyptic future after a worldwide catastrophe of unexplained origin. Oliver Masucci is also in the show as Moses, a roving collector of pre-2029 technical artifacts, and Melika Foroutan stars as principal antagonist Varvara, tasked with finding a game-changing device which could shift the balance of power between the primary factions, which are the Crows and the Crimsons.
The series aired in 2021. It was not explicitly cancelled by Netflix, but no second season was announced. Koch has stated that the production team had written up scripts for second season episodes only for it to not be picked up. As of 2024, he had moved on to new projects.
Tropes in this series include:
- After the End: The "tribes" of the modern day are remnants of the once-populous European countries, which fell after the events of "Black December" in 2029. This event, hinted to have possibly been a worldwide EMP, has precipitated a worldwide civilizational collapse, out of which came the survivors who use Schizo Tech to fit the remnants of pre-2029 technology into their daily lives.
- Artifact of Attraction: A mysterious faction called the Atlanteans possess technology that rivals, or even surpasses, pre-2029 technology and a downed Atlantean pilot entrusts Elja with a cube which could unlock the mysterious events of Black December 2029, as well as potentially upset the balance of power in Europe.
- Commissar Cap: Many soldiers of the Crimson Republic, particularly the ones higher in rank, wear caps and uniforms reminiscent of those employed by the Soviets.
- Fantastic Drug: The Crows produce a drug called "wolk"note which is generally inhaled and causes the user to go into a berserker state which makes them almost undefeatable in battle. It's implied they also traffic in it as the drug has addictive properties.
- Feudal Future: Forty years after a mysterious technological collapse, the survivors have organized into hundreds of groups called tribes. Most of the story focuses on the siblings and their father, who are from the small and peaceful Origine tribe, getting caught up in a conflict between the two larger warring Crow and Crimson tribes that occupy parts of what used to be Germany. The Crows and the Crimsons each depict aspects of authority personified in one or few individual(s), rather than being structured democratically - although the Crimsons do claim to want to reinstate pre-2029 EU values... eventually.
- Got Over Rape Instantly: Varvara forces Kiano to have sex with her and it is not discussed again after that.
- Good Is Old-Fashioned: The Crimsons explicitly cast themselves as the "good" faction which seeks to restore the virtues of the pre-2029 European Union. The Crows scornfully reject this.
- Greater-Scope Villain: While the Crows seem to be the major antagonist faction, a potentially greater danger lies in the Black Swarm about which little is known.
- Martyrdom Culture: When a Crow is sentenced to death (by their own hand, especially) or is about to die, their ritual is to announce their name beforehand.
- Might Makes Right: The Crows are an especially violent faction based out of Brahtok (pre-2029 Berlin), and they intend to conquer as much of Europe as they can.
- Putting on the Reich: The Crows have a generally black clothing aesthetic, use an angled fist-raised salute, and are run on heavily authoritarian lines, all of which combine to evoke parallels to the Third Reich.
- Scavenger World: Elja's plot line has him travel with Moses, a scavenger of pre-collapse technology, to the scavenged-technology base run by Amena so that they can repair the cube from the Atlantean pilot.
- The Thunderdome: Initiation into the Crows requires a knife fight to the death called a Bojnote (Slovak for "fight") that takes place in one of these. In the last episode of the series; Kiano is forced to fight his father in a Boj and is initiated as a Crow after his father falls on his knife.
