Series Mania Project ‘A Marriage’ From Italy’s Indigo ‘Totally Different’ to ‘Marriage Story’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Italy’s Indigo Film, the production company behind Oscar-winner “The Great Beauty,” is in advanced stages on a TV series for the global marketplace titled “A Marriage” that intends to put the narrative of a painful divorce involving custody of a child under a microscope.

The six-episode series depicting an Italian couple named Anna and Enrico from multiple angles over the course of twelve years – starting when they first intersect to the bitter legal battle for custody of their son – is among projects to be pitched during the Series Mania Digital Forum set up following cancellation of the event’s 2020 physical edition in Lille, France, due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

Indigo partner Francesca Cima underlined that “A Marriage” is “totally different” from Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” and was conceived by young Italian writer Giacomo Bendotti prior to the Netflix drama being on anyone’s radar.

“When I saw ‘Marriage Story’ in Venice, I drew a sigh of relief,” said Cima, noting that unlike the Baumbach pic the Indigo project is “a bit like a thriller” in which “we reconstruct what happened [to the marriage], led by a social worker who is almost like a detective.”

A key conceptual aspect of this show is that everything Anna and Enrico know about each other as well as photos, text messages, and emails “becomes a weapon to destroy the enemy” in their custody battle which plays out before the divorce judge, according to the synopsis

The narrative crisscrosses between the protagonists’ points of view, so that the viewer is meant to take on the role of the judge. 

Bendotti has a close rapport with Indigo forged since penning the screenplay for Juliette Binoche-starrer “The Wait” directed by then first-timer Piero Messina that screened in the 2016 Venice competition.

Cima said that prior to the coronavirus pandemic Indigo was close to securing a top Italian director for the series that has already drawn interest from a major Italian broadcaster.

The plan was to start shooting “A Marriage” in the fall of 2020 “though now everything is held up,” she noted.