27/02/2023 - BERLINALE 2023: Swiss Films have introduced a new showcase for Swiss series to the German event, in collaboration with SRG SSR

Launched with the aim of promoting and enhancing the value of Swiss series on the international market, the Swiss Series Preview initiative looks to focus attention on high-quality, innovative productions taking the form of series. For its first edition, hosted within the EFM’s Berlinale Series Market, Swiss Series Preview focused on four Swiss producers who were given the opportunity to promote their serial projects, which are still in production or development, by way of pitches to an audience of international professionals who’d travelled there for the occasion. The presented projects are co-produced by SRG SSR: SRF (for German Switzerland), RTS (for French-speaking Switzerland) and RSI (for Italian Switzerland).

The first TV series to be presented was Davos, created by Adrien Illien together with Thomas Hess, Jilia Penner and Michael Sauter, and produced by Zurich’s Contrast Film and Germany’s Letterbox Filmproduktion in co-production with Amalia Film, SRF and ARD Degeto. International sales are entrusted to Global Screen. Davos is a historical drama series which turns into an addictive thriller with unexpected twists (read our news) and is the most ambitious and costly Swiss series ever made by SRF. The First World War is devastating Europe, but Davos, a lush and luxurious spa city nestled in the Alps, doesn’t seem too affected: it’s an oasis of peace protected from the neighbouring violence. This apparent calm, however, hides a different kind of Switzerland where secret agents and global powers face off in a battle which pulls no punches. Young nurse Johanna Gabathuler (Dominique Devenport) finds herself caught in the crossfire and, in the hope of getting her daughter back, she embarks on a deadly game with the German secret service. Davos is directed by Jean-Eric Mack, Anca Miruna Lăzărescu and Christian Theede. The lead roles are played by Jeanette Hain and David Kross, alongside the afore-mentioned Dominique Devenport. Shooting will continue until March 2023 in the region of Prättigau/Davos, in the lower Engadine, and in Germany (in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Hamburg). The series is divided into six 45-minute episodes and is scheduled for broadcast in autumn 2023.

Alter Ego [+see also:
series review
series profile] was the second series presented, created by Carlotta Balestrieri, Claudia Bellana, Erik Bernasconi and Andrea Valeri, and produced by Ticino’s Amka Films and the RSI, in collaboration with the Ticino Film Commission and the city of Bellinzona. The body of a girl is found close to the capital of Ticino the day after Fat Thursday. The team of agents handling the case find themselves faced with some disturbing crimes hiding in the shadows of a tumultuous past. The crimes that have been committed reveal a world full of cynical and troubling characters. The series is composed of six 45-minute episodes and is scheduled for broadcast at the end of 2023. The cast includes Italian actor Gianmarco Tognazzi, alongside Matteo Martari, Maria Anolfo and Roberto Citran, and young newcomer Paola Buretto, as well as a number of Swiss actors, including Anna Pieri Zürcher, Bruno Todeschini and Jasmin Mattei.

The selected series also included French-language work Les indociles [+see also:
series review
series profile], which is co-produced by Box Productions and RTS (sold worldwide by Paris’s Oble), and is a serial adaptation of the eponymous comic book by screenwriter Camille Rebetez and artist Pitch Comment. Les Indociles offers a snapshot of the lives (spanning thirty years, from 1973 to 2003) of Lulu (the son of labourers), Joe (whose father heads up a factory) and Chiara (the daughter of Italian immigrants). These three characters - utopians who dream of a fairer and more inclusive society - decide to create a commune called La Ferme des Indociles [The Farm of the Unruly]. Les Indociles allows us to dream of revolution through the eyes of its three protagonists, a big family who contend with the historical and societal ups and downs of a constantly changing Switzerland. La Ferme des Indociles also founds a visionary recovery community for drug addicts. Lulu, Joe and Chiara encourage us to think about what we want to become and about a future which depends primarily on individual choices. The cast includes Marinel Mittempergher, Thomas Blanchard, Fotinì Peluso, Maya Sansa, Arcadi Radeff and Thibault Evrard. The series is planned for the end of 2023.

Last but not least, there was the detective series Tschugger, seasons three and four, which are produced, just like the previous two, by Shining Film, and created by David Constantin who is also the screenwriter, director and one of the series’ actors (the charismatic Bax). David Constantin won the award for Best Leading Actor in a TV Production at this year’s Solothurn Film Festival thanks to this very role as Bex. The cast for these upcoming seasons remains largely unchanged.

(Translated from Italian)