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Balkan Dramas Build on Region’s Rich Storytelling and ‘Creative Energy’ in Search of Global Breakouts
At the Sarajevo Film Festival, creators of two buzzy Balkan dramas spoke about their recipe for bringing the region's stories to the global market.
Snezana van Houwelingen, who produced the series for Belgrade-based This and That Productions, in co-production with Martichka Bozhilova (Agitprop) for Radio Television of Serbia, said that the creators were thinking about global audiences from the moment they began developing the script. The Munich-based production and distribution giant — whose regional slate includes “ I Know Your Soul,” a crime drama from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić(“Quo Vadis, Aida?”), which was the big winner at this week’s Heart of Sarajevo TV Awards — was soon questioning how it could leverage its considerable international muscle into creating a breakout Balkan hit. Such genre conventions have become a staple of international TV production, especially as emerging industries look to establish a formula that will create a defining, globally recognizable identity — each region’s equivalent of Nordic Noir.
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