The TV Beats programme will screen eight new series from around the world, three of them world premieres, including an Amazon production and the first Estonian series produced by the Finnish telecommunication company Elisa.
Running in its third year, the programme, designed to showcase some of the fresh highlights in the series industry, has doubled in size and features series produced outside of Europe for the first time with the Indian dramedy Little Things, broadcast by Netflix, featured among the selection.
Having its world premiere at Black Nights, the Elisa-produced Estonian series Traitor is a spy thriller that is inspired by the real-life espionage incidents between Russian and Estonian intelligence that have been occurring ever more frequently since Estonia joined NATO in 2004. The story focuses on the cat-and-mouse game of two Estonians - Alfred Vint who starts cooperating with Russian intelligence and counter-intelligence office Marko Arrak.
Also having its world premiere in Tallinn is the Russian series The Call Center by Russian directing duo Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov (The Man who surprised everyone), returning to Tallinn with the new series they created at Premier Studios. The story follows the workers of a call centre who are taken hostage by two terrorists who observe the whole building and start to demand the hostages to perform strange tasks.
The third world premiere to be featured in the programme is Burning Land, an Estonian series produced for the national broadcaster ERR, telling a story based on true events about a criminal group known as the Kolkhoz (Russian word for collective farm). The events in the series begin in 2005 and it seems unbelievable that there a parallel world next to our own in today’s world – an organisation with an extensive grasp, which still lives in the 1990s and which controlled the drug business of nearly all of Ida-Viru County. The story is told through the core members of the gang, of whom most are now in prison.
Other series to be screened are the UK-US produced sci fi series The Feed, that will screen on Amazon and features actors David Thewlis, Michelle Fairley and Guy Burnet in lead roles, the Swedish financial thriller Blinded, Russian disaster thrillerThe Outbreak and the UK nature documentary Europe From Above.
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival runs from the 15th of November until the 1st of December 2019.
Details
Traitor (Reetur), Estonia, 2019, 6x60 (festival screens 60 min), director Ergo Kuld, screnario: Martin Algus, story: Andres Anvelt, cast: Tambet Tuisk, Eva Koldits, Veiko Porkanen, Indrek Taalmaa, Mari Abel, Klaudia Tiitsmaa, Adeele Sepp Broadcaster: Elisa/ERR, Production: Kassikuld OÜ, language: Estonian / World premiere
Blinded (Fartblinda), Sweden 2019, 8x60 min ((festival screens two episodes), director: Jens Jonsson, Johan Lundin, produver: Jan Marnell, script: Jesper Harrie, Maria Karlsson, Jonas Bonnier, cast: Matias Varela, Julia Ragnarsson, production: FLX, broadcaster/platform: C More & TV4, Sweden, language: Swedish
Call Center, Russia 2019, 8x48 min (festival screens two episodes), director: Natasha Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov, producer: Valeriy Fedorovich, Evgeniy Nikishov, script: Natasha Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov, cast: Vladimir Yaglych, Pavel Tabakov, Yuliya Khlynina, Sabina Akhmedova, Polina Pushkaruk, production: Premier Studios, broadcaster/platform: PREMIER, language: Russian/ World premiere
Burning Land (Põlev maa), Estonia 2019, 8x43 min (festival screens two episodes), director: Olga Belyaeva, Margus Sikk, script: Valdo Arula, Mihkel Seeder, cast: Maria Avdjushko, Sergei Furmanjuk, production: Filmid ja Saapad OÜ, broadcaster/platform: ETV+, language: Russian/ World premiere
The Feed, USA / United Kingdom, USA 2019, 10x60 min (festival screens two episodes), director: Carl Tibbetts, producer: Simon Lewis, executive producer: Susan Hogg, script: Channing Powell, cast: David Thewlis, Michelle Fairley, Guy Burnet, Nina Toussaint-White, production: Studio Lambert, broadcaster/platform: Liberty Global & Amazon Prime , language: English
The Outbreak (Epidemija), Russia 2019, 8x48 min (festival screens two episodes), director: Pavel Kostomarov, producer: Valeriy Fedorovich, Evgeniy Nikishov, Aleksander Bondarev, Rafael Minasbekyan, Dzhanik Fayziev, script: Roman Kantor, Yana Vagner, Aleksey Karaulov, cast: Kirill Karo, Viktoriya Isakova, Maryana Spivak, Aleksandr Robak, production: Premier Studios, broadcaster/platform: PREMIER,language: Russian
Europe From Above, United Kingdom 2019, 6x44 min (festival screens two episodes), production: Windfall Films, broadcaster: National Geographic, language: English
Little Things, India 2019, director : Ajay Bhuyan (Season 1) & Ruchir Arun (Season 2), script: Dhruv Sehgal, production: Dice Media, Premium storytelling telling platform of PocketAces Pictures Pvt Ltd, broadcaster / platform: Netflix
MATERIALS
The film stills and presskits of the programme can be found HERE.
23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival TEASER.
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