Newen Connect, Flare Entertainment board Joyrider’s Cold War drama Balaton Brigade

‘Soviet noir’ drama Balaton Brigade centres on a Stasi unit in Hungary

SERIES MANIA: European distribution group Newen Connect and Berlin-based Flare Entertainment have joined forces with Hungarian outfit Joyrider to co-develop and distribute the latter’s upcoming Cold War drama series Balaton Brigade.

From Oscar-nominated Hungarian film director Ildikó Enyedi, Balaton Brigade is an eight-part spy drama set during the summer of 1986 that follows Berndt Reider, the leader of a Stasi unit stationed at the Hungarian resort of Lake Balaton.

The team is tasked with observing East German holidaymakers to prevent them from defecting to the West or receiving contraband from relatives. However, Reider himself is secretly preparing to flee to the West with his family, in order to protect his teenage daughter, a young swimming prodigy, from the East German doping machine.

Just when they are about to escape, a new surveillance case comes along that threatens to throw Reider’s plans into disarray.

Balaton Brigade was created by Joyrider’s founder Gábor Krigler, Balázs Lengyel and Balázs Lovas and will be directed by Enyedi. Joyrider and Flare Entertainment are in the process of attaching a German writer and director to the creative team.

The series, which has already been picked up by Hungary’s RTL Klub, will be largely in the German language, with filming set to take place in Hungary next summer.