London-based sales company Canoe Film makes its debut in global series distribution with ‘Mutiny’, a Latvian war drama and call to action against the Russian totalitarian regime, officially launching at Mipcom in Cannes.
The mastermind behind the seven-part series “Mutiny” is Andrejs Ēķis, the Latvian mogul and founder of the major production and film facility Cinevilla Studios, which housed Beta Films “Sisi” and the original Shudder genre pic “Raven’s Hollow.”
Ēķis serves as director-producer of the intense drama, written by Latvian Ivo Briedis, together with Ukrainian duo Vitaly Dokalenko and Anastasiia Dudchenko.
As explained by Ēkis, the story of Captain Valery Spagin and his attempted mutiny aboard a Soviet warship is based on true events from 1975.
“He [Spagin] managed to convince a crew of more than 200 people to rise up against the Soviet regime and set sail for Leningrad to demand a new revolution,” Ēkis explained. “This story is not only about a historical event, but also about how individuals within the military can recognize that the real fight is not against an external enemy, but against a system that must be changed from within.”
“Mutiny” is the crazy true story of idealism and a call to action, perhaps more relevant today than ever before,” said Ēkis, who compared his protagonist Spagin (played by Dainis Grūbe) to a “1975 Don Quixote, a man who stood up against the great [Soviet] system, fully aware of how dangerous that was.”
Detailing the making of the series, the showrunner said the biggest challenge on the production side was recreating the Soviet army of 1975, “a huge machine with huge ships and thousands of people. To bring that to the screen,” said Ēkis, “we used several modern visual effects technologies and collaborated with the Latvian military, used several ships, including an icebreaker, and detailed interior sets. But more than the technical challenges, our main task was to capture the atmosphere of that time,” he noted.
“The Soviet Union in 1975 was a place of oppression and depression, with its gray, suffocating colors weighing heavily on people’s minds and the way they viewed the world. Our job was to recreate that feeling, not only visually, but also through the actors’ performances, their emotional state under constant pressure and fear. This was our biggest struggle.”
On a personal level, Ēkis said the challenge was “to witness life in Ukraine in real time,” as both Dokalenko and Dudchenko still live in the war-torn country. “The writing process was complicated because Zoom meetings were often interrupted because they had to go to bomb shelters,” the director said. “We didn’t know when we would hear from them again – a surreal and frightening feeling that made us all even more aware of the importance of telling the ‘Mutiny’ story as soon as possible.”
The completed series produced by Ēķis with Dita Cimermane, Aija Ansone and Vitaliy Dokalenko for Cinevilla Films, was co-produced by the Latvian telecom operator TET, partly owned by the Swedish giant Telia, with support from the National Film Center of Latvia and the React-EU- fund.
The show, which launched domestically last April, became number one on TET in its first few months with 32% of active users.
Caroline Stern, Canoe Film’s honcho and long-time collaborator of Ēkis, said the series fits perfectly with her company’s profile. “We are interested in projects that have broad appeal, but also have highly recognizable and underserved niches,” she said, adding: “Quality is extremely important, as is the underlying creative and social value that we can really get behind. “
“We are also proud of the work we have done with Latvian feature films, both from an international sales point of view and in terms of remakes,” she said, referring to the Latvian comedy hit “Accidental Santa” which was sold to Sony Pictures. International Productions for remake rights in eight territories, including North America, the UK, Germany and France.
“The Baltic States have received much-needed recognition in recent years for the quality of their productions, and I hope buyers see this as an exciting proposition from one of the region’s leading producers,” said Stern.
After its official launch at the Mipcom content market in Cannes (October 21-24), “Mutiny” will travel to Tallinn, Estonia, where it will be showcased at the first TV Beats Forum Screening Day on November 20, part of Industry@Tallinn & Baltisch event.
Mutiny
Credit: Cinevilla