As of: February 7, 2024 6:25 p.m
Eugene Boateng starred alongside Christian Ulmen in “Beck’s Last Summer” and impressed in the feature film “Borga”. It is a milestone for him that, as an Afro-German, he plays an inspector in the “Flensburg crime thriller”. The second edition runs on February 22nd in the first. At THAT! he talks about sporting namesakes, his beginnings as a dancer and racism.
He should become a doctor or a lawyer – his father would have liked that. Instead, Eugene Kwaku Asante Boateng initially becomes a professional dancer, takes part in various music videos, works with artists such as Kool Savas, MIA and Jan Delay and appears in Beyoncé’s opening act. Boateng later became an actor. Apparently a good choice: he is now a commissioner for the “Flensburg-Krimi”. The first film “The Dead Man on the Beach” Over six million viewers will watch in 2021. The second Flensburg crime thriller (title: “Wechselspiele”) runs on Thursday, February 22nd, from 8:15 p.m. on the first.
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The body of Christian Rommedahl, who came from Denmark, washes up on the Flensburg Fjord.
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cinema film “Borga”: Parallels to your own family history
Boateng will receive the German Acting Prize in 2021 for his leading role in the film “Borga”. A film that is particularly close to his heart because it tells the story of a young man from Ghana who comes to Germany in the hope of a better life. A story that he knows from his own family. He himself, born in 1985, grew up with seven siblings in Düsseldorf, on the multicultural and subcultural Kiefernstrasse, notorious for its squatter scene.
The name Boateng is known to many in Germany primarily through the football stars Jérôme Boateng and his half-brother Kevin-Prince Boateng, whose father comes from Ghana. DAS! presenter Ilka Petersen wanted to know from Eugene Boateng on the show: Is the last name widespread in Ghana? “No, not really,” said Boateng. “The boys just played football, tore everything up and made the name known here – thank you very much for that! And now I’m getting into acting and then you somehow have the connection. But the name Boateng is not as well known in Ghana as it is here Example Petersen.” The actor has never met the two footballers – but he has danced with their (half) sister Avelina Boateng.
Role in the “Flensburg crime thriller”: “Maybe you can do that too”
In the “Flensburg Crime” Boateng plays Inspector Antoine Haller alongside investigator Svenja Rasmussen (Katharina Schlothauer). “Haller always likes to move a little to the left and a little to the right of the path, see where things are going,” says the actor. “He tries to do his job as well as possible, but the rules are perhaps there to be broken sometimes.”
For Boateng it is an accolade to be able to play a television inspector. At the same time, he sees filling the role as a milestone for other black people in Germany: “We’ve made it this far, become commissioner in Germany. We’re making history, we can open doors and show people: It’s possible, it can be done. That Maybe you can do it too. Give it a go and maybe we’ll see each other at work.”
Further information
3 Min
For director Anja Gurres, this is the first television film for the ARD evening program. 3 mins
“I want to wear hairstyles from my culture”
Before the Flensburg crime thriller started, Boateng was asked if he would cut his hair for the role – he declined. “In the Western world we were taught an ideal of beauty and told how we should look,” says Boateng. “Black women have it worst: They are either supposed to wear short hair or have straight hair.” During the phase of finding his identity as an adolescent, it became clear to him: “I want to wear hairstyles from my culture and thus represent my culture. And I hope that by doing so I can inspire young people to have the courage to do that with their hair, what is done in our culture.”
His parents urged him and his siblings to adapt to Germany. “Stick to the rules, pull up your pants, cut your hair. We don’t want to attract attention, we don’t want to get in trouble with the police and so on.” Boateng now sees this differently: “We don’t allow ourselves to be dictated to how we should look, what we should do and how we should speak, but we live our culture. Here.”
Further information
A conversation with Abina Ntim from Hamburg, who deals with natural hair from a cultural anthropological perspective. more
With seven people in a two-room apartment
Boateng grew up in a two-room apartment in Düsseldorf, which he shared with his parents and five of his seven siblings. “You share everything, you share the food, you share the time, you share the air,” he remembers. “Until I was 19, I shared a bed with my twin sister Eugenia. Then I went to Berlin when I was 21 – and then for the first two or three years I only spoke on the phone. As soon as I was home, I always had my sister or called my brother because the silence was too loud and unbearable.”
Boateng started dancing in Düsseldorf – making sure he became a professional soon after, choosing this career quite late at the age of 19. “I started dancing in the clubs,” the artist remembers of the beginning. “You go partying and see the dancers circling and battling each other. Then you think: ‘Wow, that’s kind of cool, I want to be able to do that too.’ Of course, that was also an ego and ambition thing that I thought : Who’s the best here? I want to be better than you, I want to be the best. Then I locked myself up, trained and went hunting.”
Cinema debut alongside Christian Ulmen
Boateng takes part in various dance competitions and finally wins the talent competition Viva Dancestar with Detlef Soost in 2006. Boateng later received further training in the areas of singing, acting and directing at the Berlin Ernst Busch Drama School and the University of the Arts and made his film debut in 2015 in a leading role alongside Christian Ulmen in the film “Beck’s Last Summer”.
The Germany-wide demonstrations against right-wing extremism in recent weeks with hundreds of thousands of participants are a positive sign for Eugene Boateng: “It’s nice that there are people who are doing something about it.” And when it comes to racism in society: “I try not to let it get to me. I always think: Either you love me because I’m crass. Or you’re jealous because I’m crass. Or you’re afraid Because I’m crass. And that’s all your problem.”
Further information
ARD media library
Michel Abdollahi’s guest in the submarine is the actor, dancer and choreographer Eugene Boateng.
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Because straight hair was considered the ideal of beauty among African American women, substances harmful to health were used for a long time. more
14 Min
TikTok world star Noel Robinson on his Afro, racist experiences and his sudden fame. 14 mins
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NDR Culture | THE! | Feb 7, 2024 | 6:45 p.m