ZED slates high-end history for Mipdoc

Megapolis: The Ancient World Revealed

French producer and distributor ZED will launch two premium documentary series at Mipdoc next month.

The firm is continuing to put history programming at the centre of its sales catalogue and will travel to Cannes to pitch Iraq: Destruction of a Nation to buyers.

The 4×52’ project is produced by Tohubohu and Slug News for pubcaster France Télévisions. It aims to tell the full story of the events that led Iraq to chaos, making use of exclusive access and recently declassified documents.

Charting the past four decades, from the first days of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980 to the war in 2003 and the fall of Daesh in 2017, the geopolitical thriller is due for delivery in November 2020.

ZED has also slated Megapolis: The Ancient World Revealed, a new series produced by Indigènes Productions for factual channel RMC Découverte.

Directed by Fabrice Hourlier, the 4×52’ series is available in spring 2020 and will bring back to life the greatest ancient cities – Athens, Alexandria, Tikal and Rome – at the height of their powers, from the fifth century BC to the Roman Empire, using CGI.

ZED will also present a film by Gérard Puechmorel, The Night of the Long Knives: Hitler’s First Crime, which is currently in production with Les Films en Vrac for cultural broadcaster Arte France.

The 52’ or 90’ one-off will lift the lid on a major turning point in the history of Nazi Germany, through the historical reconstruction of the three nights that marked Adolf Hitler’s final steps to absolute power. It will be delivered in early 2020.