“The Fear Index,” starring Josh Hartnett, and the third season of the iconic Israeli series “False Flag” will both screen at Berlinale Series Market Selects, the lineup for which was revealed on Tuesday.
The latest from “The Crown” producers Left Bank Pictures, Sky Original “The Fear Index” is billed as a fast-paced, gripping Frankenstein-style parable about the dangers of AI. Based on the Robert Harris novel of the same title, its international sales will be handled by NBCUniversal Global Distribution.
Sold by Keshet International, “False Flag” is one of the landmark titles that turned the Israeli series into a global brand, with Fox International winning the world in the first season at Mipcom 2015 in its first global acquisition of a series in a foreign language.
The third season marks the return of the two creators of the original series, Maria Feldman (“Fauda”, “No Man’s Land”) and Amit Cohen (“No Man’s Land, “Valley of Tears”), in a tale that seems ready to weaving the same web of distrust, deception and twists and turns as the first two seasons.
The Berlin Series Market conference program will open with a session, Mission Europe: How Local Markets Muscle Up, co-hosted by Film-und Medienstiftung NRW, which will delve into the different perspectives of streamers, local TV channels as well as producers regarding European Streaming Business Strategies.
Panels include a conversation with The Mediapro Studio’s Daniel Burman, a showrunner on the Argentinian spy thriller “Yosi, the Regrettable Spy,” which opens this year’s Berlinale series, which is part of the Festival’s lineup.
Denmark’s Lone Scherfig (“An Education,” “Their Finest”), whose maternity set “The Shift” plays in the Berlinale Series, will be the subject of a second Film to Series conversation about her career path as a director to series -manufacturer.
Praised by EFM director Dennis Ruh for its “very international and varied selection this year”, the 2022 Berlinale Series Market Selects strand does nothing to refute claims that, beyond the ever-reliable Scandinavia, some of Europe’s most intriguing high-end dramas these days are now on its fringes, whether in Eastern Europe or Portugal, as top local companies – Firefly, Drugi Plan, SPi – fight to launch the production of international premium series on their territories.
The Berlinale Market Series 2022 selects the lineup:
“Black Wedding” (“Crna Svadba”, Serbia)
Creators: Nemanja Ćipranić, Strahinja Madžarević
Showrunner: Ivana Mikovic
Director: Nemanja Cipranić
With: Uliks Fehmiu, Jelena Djokic, Nikola Kojo
Production Company: Firefly Productions
Broadcasters: Superstar TV, Radio Television of Serbia
Global Sales: Firefly International
Investigating a bloody massacre in eastern Serbia, intelligence agent Petar becomes entangled in the ancient conflict between the forces of good and evil. Seemingly crazy, very brutal and definitely a series to follow.
“Diana Boss”, (France)
Creator: Marion Seclin
Showrunners: Marion Seclin, Niels Rahou
Director: Niels Rahou
With: Moon A, Tokou, Ilan Bergala
Production company: La Belle Télé
Broadcaster: France TV Slash
Worldwide Sales: France TV Distribution
The latest from actress-director Seclin and a fun TV Slash moment featuring Malika, a law firm intern by day and rapper Diana Boss by night, in both roles fighting injustice,
“We are divided” (“ZERV”, Germany)
Producers: Gabriela Sperl, Quirin Berg, Max Wiedemann, Miriam Klein (EP)
Screenwriters: Jens Köster, Kim Zimmermann, Gabriela Sperl, Michael Klette
Director: Dustin Loose with Nadja Uhl, Fabian Hinrichs, Max Hubacher
Production companies: Gabriela Sperl Produktion for W&B Television in collaboration with Wilma Film for ARD, MDR and ARD Degeto for Das Erste
Broadcaster: ARD, MDR, Das Erste
Global Sales: Beta Movie
From acclaimed German producer Sperl (“Flight,” “Wirecard – The Billion Euro Lie”) and German heavyweight W&B (“The Lives of Others”), a crime thriller set in 1991 about two Central Intelligence Agency agents. German investigation, one from the East, another from the West, investigating a cross-border criminal conspiracy.
“False Flag”, Season 3 (“Kfulim”, season 3, Israel)
Creators: Maria Feldman, Leora Kamenetzky, Amit Cohen
Director: Oded Raz
With: Miki Leon, Tali Sharon, Lena Fraifeld
Production Company: Spiro Films
Broadcaster: Keshet 12
Global Sales: Keshet International
Following a suspected chemical attack at a party for an Israeli tech company in Cyprus, Eitan Koppel flies in to investigate. Sophisticated software quickly identifies three suspects who all have something to hide, but is the data reliable?
“The Fear Index” (UK)
Screenwriters: Paul Andrew Williams, Caroline Bartleet
Director: David Cafrey
With: Josh Hartnett, Arsher Ali, Leila Farzad
Production companies: Left Bank Pictures in association with Sky Studios
Broadcaster: Sky World
Sales: NBCUniversal Worldwide Distribution
One of the biggest commercial pieces of the whole selection, starring ‘Penny Dreadful’ actor Josh Hartnett in Sky’s original thriller series and anti-AI parable ‘The Fear Index’, based on the hit novel by Robert Harris (“Fatherland”).
“Fredlos”, (Denmark)
Creators: Malthe Jagd Miehe-Renard, Babak Vakili
Director: Laurits Flensted-Jensen
With: Besir Zeciri, Maria Cordsen, Afshin Firouzi
Production companies: Strong Productions, Splay One
Distributor: DR
Global Sales: DR Sales
Mohammed’s life goes into a downward spiral after he is remanded in custody for armed robbery. From Fremantle’s Strong Productions, with a seemingly terrific performance from Chef Zeciri.
“Identification,” (“Identifikaciya”, Russia
Creators: Vladlena Sandu, Nikita Ikonnikov
Showrunners: Valeriy Fedorovich, Evgeniy Nikishov
Director: Vladlena Sandu
With: Lena Tronina, Polina Kutepova, Roman Vasilev
Production company: 1-2-3 Production
Broadcaster: Premier
Worldwide sales: production 1-2-3
Valeria, an orphan converted to Islam and living in a local immigrant community, becomes the prime suspect in a murder at her own wedding.
“Harmonica,” (Sweden)
Creators: Josephine Bornebusch, Jonas Karlsson
Director: Bornebusch
With: Bornebusch, Karlsson, Eric Ericson
Production Company: Warner Bros. International Television Production Sweden
Broadcaster: Viaplay
Global Sales: Nordic Entertainment Group
A buzzing high-flying Warner Bros. title. in Sweden and Bornebush, creator of the Viaplay hit “Love Me”. “Harmonica” follows Bornesbush and Karlsson as a once huge “Abba” band and couple who played huge stadiums. 16 years later, their wedding on the rocks, they are forced to take a nostalgic comeback tour.
“Oh the hell,” (Germany)
Creator: Johannes Boss
Showrunner: Simon Ostermann
Directors: Simon Ostermann, Lisa Miller
With: Mala Emde, Edin Hasanovic, Salka Weber
Production company: Good Friends Filmproduktions GmbH
Broadcaster: Magenta TV, Warner TV Comedy
Worldwide Sales: Warner TV International
Emde (“My Daughter, Anne Frank”) plays 24-year-old Hélène, a soulful dreamer whose real life is a bathtime mess, until she meets a man who seems to understand her. Made for Deutsche Telekom’s Magenta TV and Warner TV Comedy, an original comedy from Beta Film’s Good Friends Filmproduktion, which scored with the groundbreaking TNT series “Arthur’s Law”.
“Recipes for Love and Murder”, (South Africa)
Creators: Karen Jeynes, based on a novel by Sally Andrew
Showrunner: Thierry Cassuto
Directors: Christiaan Olwagen, Karen Jeynes
With: Maria Doyle Kennedy, Tony Kgoroge, Kylie Fisher
Production Company: The Two Worlds
Broadcaster: MNET, Acorn TV
Global Sales: Global Screen
A serial murder mystery set in a small town in South Africa’s Karoo region, from South African network M-Net, AMC-owned streamer Acorn TV, Cape Town’s Both Worlds Pictures and the German sale Global Screen
“The silence,” (“Šutnja”, Croatia, Ukraine)
Creators: Marjan Alcevski, Miodrag Sila, Nebojsa Taraba, Dalibor Matanić
Showrunners: Miodrag Sila, Nebojsa Taraba
Director: Dalibor Matanic
With: Seniya Mishina, Goran Bogdan, Darko Milas
Production companies: Drugi Plan and HRT in co-production with Beta Film, Star Media, OLL.TV and ZDF/ARTE
Broadcaster: HRT, OLL.TV
Global Sales: Beta Movie
Lead produced by Croatia’s Drugi Plan, behind HBO Europe’s first original “Success” hit on HBO Adria, a slice of Eastern European noir with a detective and a reporter uncovering a drug trafficking ring. minor human beings.
“Storm Lara”,(Belgium)
Creator: Daan Gielis
Director: Kadir Ferati Balci
With: Ella Leyers, Wouter Hendrickx, Anemone Valcke
Production Company: A Private View
Broadcaster: Streamz World
Sales: Keshet International
Radio host Lara gets caught in a cat-and-mouse game with a correspondent from her show who threatens to kill himself. Created by Gielis whose first feature “La Holandesa” was screened at the Toronto Film Festival.
“Trom”, (Denmark, Faroe Islands)
Creator: Torfinnur Jakupsson
Showrunner: Torfinnur Jakupsson
Directed by: Kasper Barfoed, Davið Óskar Ólafsson, Peter Ahlén (co-director)
With: Ulrich Thomsen, Maria Rich, Olaf Johannessen
Production companies: REinvent Studios, KYK Pictures
Broadcaster: Viaplay, DR
Global Sales: REinventing International Sales
One of the most anticipated Scandinavian plays of the year, a detective series set on the spectacular volcanic Faroe Islands, starring Ulrich Thomsen (“The New Pope”), backed by Viaplay, ZDF and Arte, and produced and sold by REinvent Studios.
“Vanda”, (Portugal)
Creator: Patricia Muller
Screenwriters: Patricia Muller, Carmen Jimenez
Director: Simão Cayatte
with Gabriela Barros, João Baptista, Joana de Verona
Production companies: SPi, SA; Legendary television; Panda Productions
Broadcaster: OPTO SIC (Portugal)
Worldwide Sales: Legendary Television
Produced by the Portuguese company SPi, behind the first Portuguese original series of Netflix “Gloria”, and co-producer of “Dry Water”, and made in co-production with Legendary Pictures. Based on the true story of a woman who, alone, broke and with two children, sets out to rob banks with a blonde wig and a toy gun.
“A Woman’s Destiny” (Brazil)
Creators: Adriana Falcão, Jô Abdu, Martha Mendonça, Nelito Fernandes
Director: Leonardo Nogueira
With: Renata Sorrah, Giovanna Antonelli, Vanessa Giacomo
Production company: Globo
Broadcaster: Globoplay
Global Sales: Globo
Drawing a clear line with the Globo banner titles from “Aruanas” to “A Mother’s Love,” a 12-episode series featuring three women who finally take control of their lives.
