Notizie

The Baltic States — Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania — are ready for a boom in local TV productions, and international partners are invited.

“It’s an intriguing environment — contemporary and innovative, but we carry tons of Soviet heritage,” says Toomas Ili, head of content at Elisa Estonia. “Our scenery and architecture has yet to be seen by the world, so Hollywood productions are looking into the Baltics. Then there’s our ability to do more with less.” His latest show, the Ukrainian-Estonian drama “My Dear Mother,” about a woman forced to deal with her mother’s tragic death, will premiere at Berlinale Series Market Selects.

“I was asked which series it resembles. The answer is none,” he says.

“Writer Raoul Suvi has delicately stitched together all the elements as the story unravels, keeping the viewer — and the characters — in the dark until the end.” When Elisa Estonia started producing dramas six years ago,...

Berlinale Series Market Selects pick “My Dear Mother” might start with a brutal murder, but it’s not really about the crime, “It’s a unique love story,” says writer Raoul Suvi.

“Maybe not easily understandable, but it’s based on a fight against injustice that nobody sees or cares about, and on the sense that the main character deserves love and a much better life.”

In the Estonian-Ukrainian six-episode show, produced by Zolba Productions in collaboration with Ukraine’s Film.UA Group, the audience is put in the role of a judge and a journalist – both trying to understand what happened in the life of a girl accused of killing her own mother.

“As the story develops, they realize that the institutions, including her own family, haven’t fulfilled their main principles and goals,” reveals Suvi.

“[I wanted] to create a narrative which is not documenting a single case but creates a...

Estonia’s Jevgeni Supin from Zolba Productions, credited for the first Estonian Viaplay original “Who Shot Otto Mueller,” has unveiled his slate of five high-end dramas, including “My Dear Mother” repped by Film.UA Group and “Von Fock,” due to world premiere at Tallinn TV Beats’ first Screening Day on Nov. 20.

Supin’s extensive slate and the caliber of his TV projects, all framed as international co-productions, reflect both his ambition to set Estonian -and Baltic- drama on the global map and his pioneering breakthroughs in co-production.

The four-part period crime “Von Fock”, for instance, was the first Estonian series ever to receive support from both Creative Europe’s Media Program and Eurimages’ pilot program for series co-productions in June. “This [EU public money] meant the world to me,” said Supin, who recently stepped down as head of TV Beats Forum to fully focus on producing. “It shows that we indie producers from the...