Geopolitical Thriller ‘The Seed’ Tackles Big Business With Genre Intrigue
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Winner of the audience award and prize for best creation at this year’s Monte-Carlo Television Festival, six-part drama “The Seed” mixes Scandi-noir, ecological concerns and corridors-of-power intrigue into a tense geopolitical thriller that turns around the most elemental of concerns.
“Beneath all the thriller convention we explore this question of who feeds the world,” says show creator Christian Jeltsch. “Because whoever feeds the world has a hold on political power, and today only three companies supply us all.”
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The seeds (ahem) of the idea were planted years ago, when Jeltsch read about mercenaries destroying a seed vault in Aleppo and connected the idea to the very real Svalbard Global Seed Vault just off the North Pole. The wheels began turning, the seeds took to sprouting, and soon the show-writer had a narrative full of international intrigue that begins when a young German activist goes missing on the Norwegian northern archipelago.
The boy’s gruff, police inspector uncle (Heino Ferch) soon turns up to investigate, pairing with a local cop (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, “Westworld”) to better explore an ominous terrain where the sun never sets for six months. Meanwhile, in the corridors of European power, politicos and puppet-masters, journalists and activists and agribusiness CEOs tangle in power plays that sometimes spill over with bloodshed.
“We wanted to create a really European show,” says series director Alexander Dierbach. “Something that could integrate the landscapes and very different looks of Munich, Arctic Scandinavia, and Brussels, tying them all together. The show is really meant to open a window into these three worlds.”
Naturally, “The Seed” will tie them together with a thriller hook, rife with ticking clocks and foot-chases, mysteries uncovered and characters double-crossed, and performed in German, Norwegian and mostly English – a polyglot mix also reflective of modern Europe, and more importantly, the modern TV market. Over the course of the season, the narrative will follow the two police leads across the continent as they uncover a wider, agribusiness conspiracy that was also, unfortunately, inspired by Jeltsch’s research.
“I’ve tried to not to be cynical,” says the show creator. “But on the other hand, I think it’s good to know how the world actually works. You can’t be cynical if you know, okay, these are the people pulling the strings. So we want to be realistic, to bring in some very serious topics for the audience to think about – to connect the dots, because the dots are already out there in plain view.”
Germany’s Odeon Fiction produced the series alongside Mia Film, Rein Film, ARD Degeto and Scandi public broadcaster NRK. Other cast members include Rainer Bock, Seumas Sargent, Erik Madsen, and Friederike Becht. Leonine Studios handles international sales.
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