'Blindspot Berlin,' the TIFF standout headlined by 'All Quiet on the Western Front' star Albrecht Schuch, dominated the fourth edition of Cadiz's South International Series Festival, winning Best Fiction Series, Screenplay and an Audience Award at the prize gala held on Wednesday night.
The triple win capped a gala that also honored several of the most talked about titles in this year's carefully curated lineup, among them the Danish docuseries 'The Oligarch and the Art Dealer,' Isabel Coixet's 'Someone Should Ban Sunday Afternoons,' the Chilean creation 'Patagonia,' Norway's 'Still Breathing' and Mediaset España's non-fiction entry 'The Dirty Years: Where is Nani?'
Sold by Beta Film and backed by Germany's ARD, Europe's biggest public broadcaster, along with rbb, NDR and HR, the true crime thriller 'Blindspot Berlin' follows German police efforts to prevent the Dec. 19, 2016 Christmas market terror attack in Berlin, which killed 13 people and injured dozens. Their work is undermined by the very German institutions meant to support them.
The series comes from co-creator, co-writer and director David Nawrath, whose credits include 'Your Honor' and 'Atlas.' The SISF jury praised its 'extraordinary narrative force, an experience of suspense and dramatic tension which traps viewers until the end, even if they knew how things finally played out.'
According to the jury, part of that tension stems from the rationing of information and the constant creation of narrative knots. In Episode 1, for instance, Detective Lieutenant Frank Laudlin, played by Schuch, and Iraq-born rookie officer Isra Al-Husseini, played by Bayan Layla of 'Elaha,' race not to stop a terrorist attack but to halt a German-soil-based recruitment drive for the Islamic State.
The three SISF prizes add to an already strong run for 'Blindspot Berlin,' which was selected for the Toronto Film Festival's prestigious Primetime section as one of only two European series to make the cut, and which was picked up by Filmin for Spain in a deal announced on the first day of the festival.
Elsewhere, 'The Oligarch and the Art Dealer,' an Arte series co-created, written and directed by Andreas Dalsgaard, took Best Non-Fiction Series after drawing attention at Sundance, CPH-DOX and Canneseries. Isabel Coixet won the Cadiz City Prize for 'Someone Should Ban Sunday Afternoons,' an Arte series produced by 'The Bureau' showrunner Eric Rochant's Maui Entertainment in France. Featuring guest appearances by Tim Robbins, the comedy drama miniseries follows three twenty-something film buff flatmates in Paris who spend Sunday afternoons watching the saddest films they can find while navigating existential qualms. The Cadiz jury prized its 'refinement, for being a perfect visual gift and a contemporary generational portrait which needs to be heard.'
Among new series, a Special Mention in Fiction Series went to the anticipated SISF world premiere 'Patagonia,' created by Chile's Patricio Pereira and María Elena Wood. The echo thriller and family drama, a pioneering Spain-Chile co-production, is set in southern Chile's dazzling millennial-old larch tree forests and features an empathy-inducing central performance by Itziar Ituño of 'Money Heist' and 'Intimacy.'
Best Fiction Cast went to 'Still Breathing,' a Norwegian agenda-driven medical drama billed as Norway's answer to 'The Pitt.' Its debut in April gave public broadcaster NRK its biggest-ever opening for a drama outside of the pubcaster's Christmas shows. The jury praised its 'extraordinary capacity to construct, through a choral cast the portrait of a diverse and complex society,' adding that the performances 'configure a credible human universe full of nuance.' Created by 'Occupied' writer Karianne Lund and directed by 'Safe House's' Erik Svensson, the series is produced by 'Beforeigners' outfit Rubicon TV, a Banijay company.
Of the Spanish series on offer, the biggest winner beyond 'Patagonia' was another buzz title, 'The Dirty Years: Where is Nani?' from Mediaset España, which uses talking heads and archive footage to reconstruct the case of El Nani, a young small time criminal who disappeared in police custody in 1983. The subsequent court case involving the Francoist throwback police culprits became a show trial for Spain's young democracy.
South Boost, the festival's six-project competition for Andalusian TV producers, was won by Odeón Studios' 'Los extranjeros,' created by Julio Blez and Hugo Baena. Set in an Andalusian mining town in the late 1980s, it mixes murder mystery and sci-fi. A Special Mention went to Enciende TV's six-episode 'Folklóricas,' created by Fany de la Chica and Miguel Ángel Parra, which reunites four faded copla stars for a TV documentary in 1991, reigniting old rivalries.
