Russian Telecom MTS Launches Into Production With Mipcom Slate (EXCLUSIVE)

MTS Media, the production arm of leading Russian telecom and internet service provider MTS, is partnering with Sreda Production to co-produce seven new series for the MTS TV streaming platform. Four of those projects will launch international sales during Mipcom Online+ this week.

In the psychological thriller “Crystal City,” a veteran investigator is forced to return to the city of his childhood to investigate a string of murders. But while Sergei Smirnov follows the trail of the serial killer, his own long-buried secrets threaten to come to the surface.

“Snail Running” is the story of a woman whose life splits into two parallel worlds after she suffers a tragedy at the age of 16. Over the course of the series those twin worlds start to intertwine, until the two storylines converge at the point where it all began.

In “Married Life Scenes,” a young couple on the brink of divorce suddenly find their old passion rekindled by an unexpected death.

“Caesar” (pictured) is set in the gloomy, brooding landscape of the Curonian Spit, a 60-mile long stretch of sand dune on the shores of the Baltic Sea. It turns on the story of the Reaper, a serial killer who once terrorized the local population but was never caught. Twenty years later, the Reaper suddenly returns again.

The four series are among a host of new Russian projects that will be hitting the virtual Mipcom market, with more than 30 companies taking part in the joint virtual “Made in Russia” stand, organized by the Russian Export Center.

Along with its co-production slate with MTS Media, Sreda Production will be launching international sales of the horror film “Kitchenblock,” produced for the VOD platform Kinopoisk HD. Set against the backdrop of the 1980 summer Olympics in the former Soviet Union, it follows the strange and horrific events that unfold at an ordinary summer camp.

Art Pictures Distribution will be selling “Chicks,” which has racked up more than 11 million views since bowing this June on the VOD platform more.tv. The film follows three women brought together by the hard realities of working together in a brothel, who try to shake off their sordid past when a former co-worker returns from Moscow with a daring business scheme.

The company, founded by multi-hyphenate Fedor Bondarchuk, will also unveil the sci-fi series “Successors,” currently in production and set for a 2021 release. The show tells the story of ordinary teenagers who discover they’re the grandchildren of the most powerful magician in history, and are forced to defend themselves from an evil aunt trying to steal their powers.

Mars Media Entertainment will launch the romantic action-adventure series “The Prisoner,” a swashbuckling historical tale about a Cossack traveler who’s imprisoned by the Ottoman Empire and determined to find his way back to freedom. Also from Mars Media is the crime-mystery series “The Northern Lights,” about a famous crime novelist forced to investigate a series of strange incidents after escaping to a remote and secluded region.

“The Big Game,” produced by 1-2-3 Production in co-production with Amedia Production, follows a group of contestants in a reality show competing for a cash prize in a deadly game of survival in the wilderness. When the show’s TV crew turns up dead, the contestants are forced to wonder if everything they’re experiencing is real or a game. With little hope for survival, they must fight until the bitter end.

Finally, GPM ETV’s “Ikotka,” produced by Good Story Media, is the story of a 19 year old who leaves home to search for his parents, who went missing during an expedition into the Siberian wilderness. Joined by his uncle and two folklore students they meet along the way, he embarks on a journey that makes him question everything he knew before, until he comes to realize that the key to his past is hidden there in the Siberian wild.