Translated material
Mexican “Card of the House”, Romanian “wiretapping”, Norwegian “madmen” and “all grave” in Russian and German
Five TV shows are not from the USA. But no worse than the American!
In 2018, TV shows and television films finally turned into an integral, and sometimes most intriguing part of film festivals. The best of them represented on Sandance, in Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Toronto. At the request of Medusa, the film critic Yegor Moskvitin talks about five amazing, but so far little -known series shot not in the USA, which in October showed at the International Film Festival in Zurich.
Hackerville (Hackerville)
Germany, Romania, 2018
In 2011, WireD entered an exciting article on how a small Romanian city with a 120-thousandth population two decades after the fall of the Chausti regime turned into a European capital of cybercrime-a place that began to be called Haqueville. In 2018, two respected television companies-HBO Europe and TNT Serie-finally guessed to shoot the series of the same name.
In Germany, there is a cyberatak on a large bank. Hackers can take millions of euros, but defiantly steal the amount that is enough only to buy a T -shirt. From Frankfurt to Khakkerville (in fact, this town is called Rymnik-Poddcha, and the shooting of the series took place in Timishoar) is sent by the closed investigator Lisa-a girl from these places. She is played by Anna Schumacher - a German of Romanian origin. Having united with local detectives, which at first look at comical simpletons, but by the end of the first series they turn into real wolves, the detective begins to hunt hackers-young and daring criminals, similar to rock star and serial philosophizing maniacs.
“Hackerville” is a messenger of television changes, which everyone talked about at the Film Festival in Venice, where the HBO Europe showed “my brilliant girlfriend”. The local story again acquires global potential: in six -part drama they speak German and Romanian, but it is obvious that HBO fans will love it around the world. Behind the project is a strong international team. The co -author and executive producer of the series is Yorg Winger. This is the creator of the excellent series “Germany-83”-the European Spy Threal about the Cold War, which managed to get to such a prestigious American channel as Sundance TV. Another producer is the recognized Romanian director Christian Munzhiu, author of "4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days."
Khakkerville captivates not only by acting, witty dialogs and promising ties, but also a place of action, where European Baroque in the city center is still adjacent to communist ideas about the construction of sleeping areas. Nevertheless, the obvious guideline of the series is heavy American epics about cops and bandits. In particular, the Baltimore "wiretap" with the central HBO; Even her opening scene in the courtroom is copied here in the first episode. The two episodes get the impression that it is not so easy to get used to the gloomy "hackerville". But as soon as the viewer is drawn up, the Romanian outback will give him amazing tourist experience.
Arthurʼs Law Law)
Germany, 2018
The main character named Arthur wakes up, smiles at the new day, stretches out in bed, throws his hands behind his head - and the viewer discovers that the hero does not have a brush. He lost it in the workplace. Moreover, he drank it to himself - on the advice of the dear wife of Marta, who was counting on insurance for an accident. But the conspirators were exposed, so Arthur was left without a hand and without money. And yes, this morning he turned 50 years old - but the indifferent March presented the tenth photo frame with a joint portrait, so it was necessary to celebrate Arthur with a young prostitute. And then her pimp came to visit the hero - and the story began in the spirit of Fargo, only about modern Germany and much funnier.
In the history of television, there was already one series about a small man who became a large monster, and he also began with an awkward celebration of the 50th anniversary of the hero. But the “Law of Arthur”, judging by the first episodes, is not going to be a parody of “all heavy” - this is a completely self -sufficient black comedy, which can turn into a drama as a click.
State of happiness.
Belgium, Norway, 2018
In the 1960s, noble treasures were discovered on the shelf of the North Sea-and Norway began to turn into an oil power. The Government of the Scandinavian country reasonably disposed of income from the sale of hydrocarbons and created the Norwegian oil fund - an institute, about the unheard of efficiency of which economists like to discuss.
The action of the “state of happiness” begins shortly before the great geological discoveries, at a desperate time, when few believed in Norway’s oil and gas potential, local drillers sat without work, and foreign companies left the region one after another. Several heroes - each for their own reasons - continue to explore deposits. Among them is a conceited expanse either from Shell, or from British Petroleum, a guy from a local village who had just made an offer to his friend, and the youngest son from the dynasty of successful businessmen, tired of explaining his failures to the family.
The series about the romantics, gambling fighting for the future of their country, in some places resembles an elegant costume drama in the spirit of American "madmen"-there and there the heroes are truly obsessed with their work. At the cost of production, the “state of happiness” is also approaching, rather, to the American television show. This is the most expensive Norwegian series today; Although the amount of 13 million euros seems ridiculous against the background, for example, the “crown” from Netflix.
Here on Earth (Here on Earth)
Mexico, 2018
On December 1, 2018, Andres Manuel Lopez, a politician who repeatedly called his country's elite “mafia from power”, will be taken over the post of President of Mexico. The series produced by Gaeal Garcia Bernalus was released on the eve of the election - and eloquently described what exactly the candidate Kindor had in mind.
This is an explosive mixture of the “card house”, “boss” and “caligula”: a drama, which equally passionately describes both political campaigns, corruption business schemes, and orgies of aristocrats saturated with life. The main characters of the multi -figure composition are the impudent son of the governor, who decided to nominate the presidency, and the son of the bodyguard of this governor hungry to power. Their relationship is somewhat reminiscent of the bonds with which the “game of thrones” connected Robba Stark and Theon Grajoy. The heroes are close as brothers, but they are separated by a class abyss, which causes the main conflict of the series. Bernal himself plays one of the roles in it, giving a local project the status of an international blockbuster series.
An ordinary woman
Russia, 2018
The series "Ordinary Woman" Boris Khlebnikov will appear on October 29-but, thanks to the concentrated promotion of TV-3, it has been talking about it for more than a year. At first there was a closed show in the Moscow cinema, then - a triumph at the French festival of Series Mania (where Anna Mikhalkova received a prize for the best female role), then the premiere at the “movement” in Omsk, and then at the festival in Zurich and Cannes Mipcom TV tellynka. The reaction of the press after each demonstration was approximately the same: “An ordinary woman” - a series that wants to watch with hard. And the French edition of Premiere even declared the Russian drama by the female version “Great”.
Both are very similar to the truth. Khlebnikov knows how to shoot scenes from family life so that the viewer does not feel the distance between themselves and the heroes. And the trajectory of the fall of the character Anna Mikhalkova really reminds of Walter Waita. In the very first series, it turns out that the 39-year-old mistress of the flower store, the wife of the surgeon and the mother of two daughters are also a successful pimp. The family, of course, does not know anything - just as the heroine does not know about the betrayals of her husband, played by Evgeny Grishkovts. Since the recruitment of prostitutes is organized anonymously, and the heroine grows the daughter of quite “draft” age, the viewer from the very first series is waiting for a tragic interchange in the spirit of “Rigoletto” . And he will receive, if not her, then something in the same emotional range: the series has a very powerful script.
Egor Moskvitin