The Berlin Festival’s ever larger three-day Berlinale Series Market kicks off today, Feb. 20. Below just a small selection of the series screening at the Market or in Berlinale Series, the festival strand. The selection could have been much larger.
about Antoine
Berlinale Series Market Selects
Canada
Creator: Cathleen Rouleau
Production company: ComediHa!
Broadcaster: Club illico, TVA (Quebecor)
An insight into the life of a family with all the quirks, highs and lows it entails, tackling a rarely explored theme in fiction: Life with a multi-handicapped child.
Rouleau: “I didn’t want to write a gut-wrenching story. A good show is wrapped in truth. It doesn’t matter if the hero spits fire from his mouth, as long as he is true to himself.”
Agent
Berlinale Series
Denmark
Creator, director: Nikolaj Lie Kaas
Production company: Zentropa Productions2
Broadcaster: TV2
Johan’s job is to solve his clients’ problems. Chronically overstretched, he teeters between ingenious plans and absolute chaos.
Lie Kaas: “My plan was to make a funny show. It has to provoke, be intelligent and be personal. It’s sarcastic, a bit dark and ironic. Very Danish, I guess.”
The Architect
Berlinale Series
Norway
Director: Kerren Lumer-Klabbers
Production company: Nordisk Film Production
Broadcaster: Viaplay Group
When a project to build a thousand flats in Oslo is put out to tender, architect Julie has an idea: Why not convert underground car parks into residential buildings?
Lumer-Klabbers: “By placing ‘The Architect’ in the future, we have the freedom to enhance and enlarge trends that we see in our society today, and explore their consequences.”
Export Only
Co-Pro Series
Romania
Creator, director: Cristina Iliescu
Production company: microFILM Romania
A daughter tries to understand her true self. A mother tries to protect her, all in a border town fuelled by a drug gang run by violent teens.
Ada Solomon: “We’re interested in nuanced exploration of women’s identity in such families.Getting into series is our company’s attempt to diversify and adapt to the market challenges.
Spy/Master
Berlinale Series
Romania, Germany
Creators: Adina Sădeanu, Kirsten Peters
Production company: Proton Cinema, Mobra Films
Broadcaster: HBO Max, Warner TV Serie
In 1978, a spy from the Eastern Bloc defects to the West. So starts the game of “spy poker” between the CIA, Securitate, KGB and Stasi.
Sădeanu: “Navigating smoothly through a great deal of details, subtext and characters’ power games was quite challenging. They say the devil is in the details, but so is the beauty.”
The Swarm
Berlinale Series (Out of Competition)
German, Belgium
Production company: Schwarm TV Productions
Broadcaster: ZDF, France Télévisions, Rai, Viaplay Group, Hulu Japan, ORF, SRF
In this adaptation of Frank Schätzing’s novel, nature seems to be taking its revenge. A research team becomes humanity’s last hope.
Doelger: “I was conscious of the approach we had taken on the other ‘big-budget,’ new ‘world defining’ shows, which was to reveal the worlds through the characters’ experience.”
Traitor
Berlinale Series Market Selects
Israel
Creator: Asaph Polonsky
Showrunners: Amit Cohen, Ron Leshem
Production company: WestEnd Films
Broadcaster: HOT
When a flight vanishes mid-air, a blind intelligence officer is brought in to investigate. His family is among the passengers. From the writers of “Euphoria” and “False Flag.”
Cohen, Leshem: “We are hoping to deliver a unique mystery that will engage the audience, but we were able to delve into raw human emotions that come with such a tragedy.”
