Balkan drama creators want to turn local stories into global hits

Two sensational Balkan series took center stage at the Sarajevo Film Festival this week, with local creators revealing the recipe for turning regional stories into potential breakout hits.

Sunday night saw the red carpet regional premiere of the Serbian crime drama „Operation Sabre,” which premiered in this year’s long-form competition at CanSeries. The 2003 assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Sinic was created and directed by Goran Stankovic and Vladimir Dagic.

Snezana van Houwelingen, who co-produced the Belgrade-based series This and That Productions with Martichka Bozhilova (Agitprop) for Serbia’s Radio Television, said the creators think about a global audience from the moment they start developing the script. .

„From the beginning, we believed that this story had international potential, even though it was a very local event, even though it took place in Serbia,” he said. “Everything we did during the development process was related to how to make a TV show [that would] Connect with an international audience.”

Anna Rode, international creative executive at Beta Film Group — whose distribution arm Beta Film is reprising the series globally — said her company began circling the project as early as 2019, when it won an award during the Cinelink drama pitching sessions in Sarajevo.

„From that point on, it was very clear that it was very international,” Rhode said. The Munich-based production and distribution company — whose regional slate includes „I Know Your Soul,” directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jasmila Žbanic („Quo Vadis, Aida?”), scored a big hit in the heart this week. Sarajevo TV Awards – The Balkans quickly questioned how it could use its considerable international muscle to produce success.

„We discussed what we could add as a co-production partner,” Rohde said. „What can we contribute to bring together an international audience? It was a question of collaboration.

Eckert Emmanuel, deputy director of acquisitions for MediaVan rights, said there had been a change in the way the French distribution authority approaches TV series. “We want to help the producer fund the show. That is what we are doing more and more,” he said. „It’s a lot different than 10 years ago, when we got shows now” that are finished and ready to sell. „We are more partners than distributors.”

Earlier this year, the company announced its first foray into the Balkans at Series Mania, securing international distribution rights to „Constantine’s Crossing,” a World War II paranormal story about the Nazis’ hunt for powerful relics once owned by Roman Emperor Constantine. Big.

Describing it as a „Serbian show with vampires, werewolves, Nazis and a mysterious cross,” Emmanuel admits the series was „not an easy pitch.” „What really attracted me was not just the quality of the production team, but also the script. It’s always a game changer,” he said.

„Constantine’s Crossing” is an adaptation of the Serbian bestseller by Dejan Stojiljkovic and produced by Telekom Serbia and Belgrade-based Firefly Productions. The series is written by Djordje Milošavljevic and Firefly co-founder Boban Jevdi.C.

Jevdić, former head of the Serbian Film Center and prolific film and TV writer, said the show’s mystical elements were exactly what its creators wanted to play when they began to position it on the international market.

„When people think of the kind of project we want to do on a very large scale, we want to do something that connects the world through genre, with a very strong local touch,” he said.

Such genre conventions have become a staple of international television production, especially as emerging industries seek to establish a formula that creates a defining, universally recognizable identity—each region’s equivalent of Nordic noir.

However, Beta’s Rohde warned aspiring TV creators in Sarajevo against using a one-size-fits-all strategy to search for the mysterious alchemy behind creating a global hit.

„Here’s the bad news: There is no recipe,” he said. „Here’s the good news: There’s a lot of creative energy [in a region] It’s full of stories, and each one of them is so much fun to watch. We are open to anything.”

Meanwhile, Emmanuel noted that the countries of the former Yugoslavia — long synonymous with turmoil and strife — stand to gain by rallying around their shared history and cultural identity.

„I think what’s really important when you’re talking about the Balkans is that we’re not talking about a country,” he said. „Of course, we work with Serbia, Croatia and other countries. But I think we are stronger when we are united.

The Sarajevo Film Festival runs from August 16 to 23.