Seriesly Berlin Screenings will be opened on September 16 at 7pm in the presence of cast and crew with the festival premiere of the comedy series "Der Upir", the most biting Joyn production to date. Seriesly shows four episodes of the eight-part first vampire comedy from Germany, produced by UFA Fiction. The series, in which "Jerks" star Fahri Yardim and indie icon Rocko Schamoni become figures of the night, celebrates its festival premiere at Seriesly Berlin before it becomes available on the German streaming platform Joyn. In addition to the two main actors Yardim and Schamoni as well as creator, writer and director Peter Meister (“The Black Square”), the actors Lana Cooper (“Love Steaks”), Aenne Schwarz (“All Is Well”), Bernhard Schütz (“Eichwald, MDB”) and Thelma Buabeng ("Käthe and I") are also expected as guests.
Later the same day follows the German premiere of the six-part French series for Canal+ "The Trigger" (La Fièvre). Set in the high-pressure world of professional football, the drama about a media scandal comes from Eric Benzekri, the former politician and creator of the acclaimed Canal+ series "Baron Noir" and from Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, producers of the global success "Intouchables".
Also, Seriesly Berlin provides the platform for the European premiere of the eight-part US Netflix series "Penelope" with Megan Stott ("Little Fires Everywhere") and Austin Abrams ("Euphoria"), presenting three episodes of the show. Feeling out of place in modern society, a 16-year-old is drawn into the unknown wilderness, where she begins forming a new life for herself. "Penelope" celebrated its world premiere at the renowned Sundance Film Festival 2024 and will launch in the USA on September 24 on Netflix.
"Spinners" comes from South Africa, but also produced for Canal+. The series, which will be shown for the first time in Germany, had its world premiere at CANNESERIES, won three awards at the Dakar Series Festival and the Magnolia Award for best foreign language TV series at the Shanghai TV Festival 2024. The series tells the story of Ethan, who develops a lot of talent for spinning, a South African motorsport in which cars are driven in circles at high speed and stunts are performed in and outside the car. Spinning originated in the 1980s in Soweto as a funeral ritual of the local gangster culture in which a car was spun around in honor of the deceased.
The festival´s program also includes the world premiere of the Dutch eight-part documentary series "The Underground Railroad". The well-known documentary filmmakers Martijn Blekendaal and Finbarr Wilbrink take their viewers on a journey along the Underground Railroad, the resistance network that helped thousands of enslaved people escape from the southern states of the USA to freedom in the north in the mid-19th century. They show how strongly the history of slavery, although abolished over 150 years ago, still shapes the current social division in the USA.
The program closes with the Spanish drama series "Dressed in Blue" (“Vestidas de Azul”). "Dressed in Blue" uses its six protagonists to explore the reality of transgender people in the 1980s, a particularly hostile time for trans people in Spain. "Dressed in Blue" is the continuation of the successful series "Veneno", which tells the story of La Veneno, Spain's most famous trans woman, and of her life but also her sudden death in 2016 under circumstances that remain unclear to this day. The series “Dressed in Blue” is one of the most watched series of the Spanish streaming service artresplayer and Max secured the broadcasting rights for Latin America. "Dressed in Blue" celebrates its German premiere at the Seriesly Festival.
Matija Dragojevic, Head of Programming, comments: “The festival line-up is a reflection of Seriesly Berlin’s culture. Art meets mainstream, socially relevant topics meet entertainment. From big-budget shows to daring indie series, we want to challenge audiences’ expectations, make them laugh, cry, and bring everyone together to experience the big screen—with phones off and minds wide open.”
The program at a glance:
The Upir, Germany 2024, Comedy, 8 x 24 min. for Joyn
Synopsis: Human - Upir - Vampire: Climbing the career ladder to immortality was not actually Eddie's (Fahri Yardım) goal. But during a house viewing, the hip owner of a Berlin burger joint is bitten in the depths of the basement by vampire Igor (Rocko Schamoni). From that moment on, Eddie's transformation from human to bloodsucker begins. He can only prevent this metamorphosis by unconditionally serving Igor as Upir, be it by disposing of corpses as well as his amorous ambitions...
Cast: Alongside Fahri Yardım and Rocko Schamoni, the main roles are played by TATORT detective Andrea Sawatzki, the Austrian cabaret artist David Scheid, Lana Cooper, Bernhard Schütz, Thelma Buabeng, Arnd Klawitter, Stephanie Petrowitz ("The Zone of Interest") and Aenne Schwarz as co-vampires and mortals.
"Der Upir" is produced by UFA Fiction for Joyn. The producer is Katharina Possert, the director is Peter Meister, who is also responsible for the idea and the screenplay. The camera is operated by Nikolai von Graevenitz.
Seriesly Berlin will be showing four episodes of 22 - 24 minutes each as festival premiere on September 16 at 7pm with English subtitles.
The Trigger (La Fièvre), France 2024, Drama, 6 x 52 min.
for CANAL+ France
Synopsis: “The Trigger” thrusts us into the high-pressure and political world of professional football and crisis communication. The story begins when a black player insults his white coach publicly. In a matter of seconds, Francois Martens, the president of the club, contacts Tristan, the head of the Kairos crisis communication agency to diffuse the situation. The future of the club depends on it. The brilliant female communication specialist Sam is assigned the case. Things take a turn when she learns that her former colleague, and only person who ever truly understood her, has joined the far-right and is using the story for political purposes. As the case unfolds, the whole of French society will be torn apart, leading to the biggest fight of Sam's career, against the only person she ever feared.
Cast: Nina Meurisse, Ana Girardot, Benjamin Biolay, Alassane Diong
Crew: Creator: Eric Benzekri, Writers: Eric Benzekri in cooperation with Laure Chichmanov and Anthony Gizel, Director: Ziad Doueiri, Producer: Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Production: QUAD +TEN
Seriesly Berlin Screenings presents two episodes on September 16 at 9:30pm with English subtitles as German premiere.
Penelope, USA 2024, Drama, 8 x 30 min. on Netflix US
Synopsis: Like most teenagers today, Penelope is caught up in the modern world’s technology, pacing and pressure. But something is missing, and things feel off, she just can’t quite put it into words. On the surface, her life seems pretty great, while inside, there’s a fierceness that’s been brewing, a calling towards a new way of being. After a chance encounter with a wolf and a rabbit on a school camping trip, the call becomes too loud for Penelope to ignore. When no one is looking, she runs away. Without a plan, Penelope navigates her way through a series of encounters, traveling a long distance and eventually sneaking into a National Forest. But this is only the beginning of what will become a long journey through the unknown wilderness and Penelope’s quest to find her place in it.
Cast: Megan Stott, Austin Abrams
Crew: Director: Mel Eslyn, Writers: Mel Eslyn, Mark Duplass Producer: Meghan Mowery
Executive Producer: Mark Duplass Jay Duplass, Shuli Harel, DOP: Nathan M. Miller, Co- Producers: Emily Neumann, Nathan M. Miller, Production Design: John Lavin, Editing: Celia Beasley, Composers: Danni Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans with Julia Piker, Production: Duplass Brothers Productions
Seriesly Berlin is showing three episodes of the series on September 17 at 7pm in the original English language version.
Spinners, South Africa 2023, Drama, 8 x 50 min.
for CANAL+ Africa / MNET
Synopsis: Ethan is a good kid born on the wrong side of town. In Cape Town's slums where local gangs make the law, he is soon left with no choice but to work for one of them to support himself and his younger brother. Caught in a web of crime, he discovers he has an incredible talent for spinning, an exciting and extreme motorsport. Could this be his way out from the violent criminal life that seems to be the only option to survive in his neighborhood?
Cast: Cantona James, Chelsea Thomas, Brendon Daniels, Dillon Windgovel
Crew: Creators: Joachim Landau, Benjamin Hoffman, Writers: Matthew Jankes, Sean Steinberg, Gillian Breslin, Daniel Zimbler, Byron Abrahams, Zoë Laband, Director: Jaco Bouwer, Producer: Joachim Landau, Production: Empreinte Digitale, Natives at Large
The German premiere at Seriesly Berlin will be presented on September 17 at 9:30pm with two episodes. The episodes, originally filmed in English, Afrikaans and Kaaps, will be subtitled in English.
The Underground Railroad, (Ondergrondse Sporen) Docu series, The Netherlands,
8 x 45 min. for Zwart
Synopsis: The reverberations of violence and the discussions on Black Lives Matter in the United States echo across the Atlantic as Europe feels their aftershocks. The colour line in America has never seemed starker, as the nation struggles to come to terms with its turbulent past and divisive present. In this documentary series two friends and fellow filmmakers, Martijn Blekendaal & Finbarr Wilbrink, one black, one white, embark on a transformative American road trip along the old tracks of the Underground Railroad, during slavery times a resistance group that helped smuggle enslaved people to freedom, from the sun-drenched South to the icy North of the United States. Finbarr and Martijn aim to unlock the mystery of how people can coexist in the face of such political polarization and a history of bloodshed. Away from the cacophony of screaming headlines and fleeting TikTok videos, they immerse themselves in every aspect of American life and its chronicles, probing for answers to the most pressing questions: where does it work, and what are the pitfalls and obstacles to peace and unity?
New Orleans, Alabama, Atlanta, Mississippi, St Louis, Chicago, Detroit: can the folks they meet on the road illuminate a path forward that transcends the boundaries of race and politics and serve as a mirror that reflects their own struggles, teaching them how to navigate the treacherous waters of the division within their own society?
Crew: Directors: Finbarr Wilbrink und Martijn Blekendaal, DOP: Jurgen Lisse, Editing: Lykle Tuinstra, Research: Aisha Bosnie, Producer: Paul Beek & Wilko Brandsma, Production Manager: Jorike Verlaan, Pol van Veen, Field Producer: Akasha Rabut, Production Company: De Haaien in cooperation with broadcaster Zwart
Seriesly Berlin is showing on September 18 at 7pm two of the 45-minute episodes subtitled in English as a world premiere.
Dressed in Blue, (Vestidas de Azul), Spain 2024, Drama,
7 x 50 min. for atresplayer
Synopsis: Two years after the death of La Veneno, Valeria finds the tape that narrates the experiences of six transsexuals in Spain in the early 1980s. These experiences will inspire Valeria's new book which, once again, decides to tell the story of women who do not deserve to be forgotten. 'Vestidas de Azul' (Dressed in Blue) maintains the same narrative structure as 'Veneno', straddling the present and the past, intertwining the lives of its protagonists. It deals with the reality of transgender people in the 1980s, a very hostile period for the collective, through the six protagonists of the documentary 'Vestidas de Azul'.
Cast: Lola Rodríguez, Paca La Piraña, Goya Toledo, Juani Ruiz, Alex Saint, Rossa Ceballos, Ángeles Ortega, Desirée Vogue
Crew: Director: Claudia Costafreda, Mikel Rueda, Ian de la Rosa, Writers: Claudia Costafreda, Javier Ferreiro, Javier Holgado, Susana López Rubio, Mikel Rueda, Valeria Vegas, Producer: Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo, Montse García, Andrea Herrera Catalá, Valeria Vegas, DOP: Sara Gallego, Alana Mejía González, Carlos Rigo, Lali Rubio, Production: Atresmedia TV, Suma Content
Seriesly Berlin celebrates the German premiere on September 18 at 9:30pm with two of the 50-minute episodes, presented with English subtitles.
Seriesly Berlin is funded by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and has won the sponsorship prize in the "innovative event formats" competition of “Project Future” at Berlin’s Senate Department for Economic Affairs, Energy and Public Enterprises. Media partner is SPOT media & film.
More info: www.serieslyberlin.com
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