‘Baloton Brigade’ Chosen by Berlinale-Series Mania Project Exchange to Pitch in Lille

Cold War spy drama “Baloton Brigade” has been selected to pitch at Series Mania in Lille as part of the Berlinale-Series Mania Project Exchange.

Under the terms of the partnership, now in its seventh year, one project pitched at Series Mania at Lille is invited to pitch again at the ongoing Berlin Series Market’s Co-Pro Series (March 1-5). In return, Series Mania invites a Berlinale project to pitch in Lille as part of the Series Mania Forum (Aug. 30-Sept. 1).

“Baloton Brigade,” an eight-part historical spy drama produced by Joyrider and Film Force (Budapest), is now Lille-bound. As revealed by Variety, Hungarian broadcaster RTL Klub has boarded the project, which is created by Gaìbor Krigler, Balaìzs Lengyel and Balaìzs Lovas, and directed by Ildikoì Enyedi (Oscar-nominated “On Body and Soul”).

“This year again, we are delighted to collaborate with Berlinale, to choose a project that will be pitched during the Series Mania Festival,” said Laurence Herszberg, founder and general director of Series Mania.

“Amongst the presented projects, one did particularly stick out to us: ‘Balaton Brigade.’ We were drawn to the story’s original sunny lakeside setting, the complexity of the characters and its fresh and deliciously vintage tone. This period spy drama revisits a historical time that all Europeans think they know through a daring angle, allowing us to deal with our recent past in a way that is both thought-provoking and fun.”

The show follows a secret agent in the elite Stasi unit codenamed the Balaton Brigade, a team tasked with observing East German holidaymakers as they meet their relatives from west of the Iron Curtain on the sun-kissed shores of the “Hungarian Sea.” Forging an uneasy alliance with a local counterpart, he engages in increasingly intense psychological warfare against their target, only to realize that the tables are being turned—even as he hatches his own plot to escape with his family to the West.