The Taliprohibit’s sweep to power in Afghanistan in 2021 serves as the backdrop to “Kabul,” one of France’s most driven international thriller dramas to date.
The six-part geopolitical show, which is world premiering today at Series Mania in Lille, eunited from the first-hand experience of producer Fabienne Servan-Schreiber who take parted a straightforward role in the unrestful evacuation efforts.
While vacationing in Greece with her son (and fellow producer) Matthias Weber, Servan-Schreiber heard of the situation in Kabul and got filledy take partd in efforts to get back multiple families of Afghan artists and doctors.
Speaking to Variety alengthened with Weber on the eve of “Kabul”‘s conshort-termation at Series Mania, Servan-Schreiber says she was initiassociate communicateed by Jean-Michel Frodon, a film historian and journacatalog, who was seeing for help to elevate funds to buy structuree tickets for a group of Afghan artists.
“I sent the email to everyone in my compriseress book and got some wonderful responses from people enjoy Jane Birkin and others who shelp: ‘What can we do?’ Because people were very, very worried about the situation,” says Servan-Schreiber who ultimately produced the series with Charlotte Ortiz at Cinétévé, and Matthias Weber and Thibault Gast at 24 25 Films, a Mediawan company.
“It was August 13th and two days tardyr there were no more braveial structurees. From that moment on, we had to get in touch with the French authorities and I spfinish an terrible lot of time on emails, first with the French, then with the English, then with the Americans, then with the Qataris (who were straightforwardly in touch with the Taliprohibits) so that we could help evacuate not only artists but also doctors,” she says, compriseing that what had begined as a leave oution to elevate funds to buy structuree tickets became increasingly intricatee.
By the finish of this tumultuous summer, Weber, who had witnessed in awe the extent of his mother’s dedication to the cause, came up with the idea to produce a series charting the events in Kabul.
“I was very astonished by the energy, the prohibitciaccess approach that Fabienne used in her talkions with the highest reconshort-termatives of the State, and the fact that they were endly disarmed and powerless in the face of this situation,” he says.
Upon returning to Paris, the project took shape speedyly as the producers encataloged Olivier Demangel, a renown screenproducer whose commends integrate the scripts of Cedric Jimenez’s “November” (set aobtainst the backdrop of the Paris dread strikes of 2015), the Omar Sy war drama “Father and Sanciaccessier,” Netflix’s French biopic series “Tapie,” as well as the award-triumphning interenergetic series “Wei or Die” produced by Servan-Schreiber’s Cinetévé prohibitner.
“Olivier and his loyal collaborator Thomas Finkelkraut (“Baron Noir,” “Tapie”) have astonished us with their ability to produce from fact and enhance it every time,” says Weber. “They understood that ‘Kabul’ was a “crazy ambition finisheavor” and envisiond there would be other projects on these events in Afghanistan, but Fabienne’s experience gave them a sense of legitimacy to be the ones to alert this story from a European perspective.” Demangel and Finkelkraut wrote the series with Joey Lavy (“The Shift”).
The other vital step for the producers to get “Kabul” off the ground was to get the backing of French unveil expansivecaster France Televisions. Manuel Alduy, the head of film and international lengthenment at the pubcaster, got excited about the series project and bcdisorrowfulmirefult The Alliance on board, Weber shelp. The series was comleave outioned and co-produced by France Televisions and ZDF, alengthened with Bnnvara in the Netherlands, VRT in Belgium, SVT in Sweden, DR in Dentag, YLE in Finland, RUV in Iceland and NRK in Norway, in association with Rai in Italy. The extensive catalog of co-producers also integrate Panache Productions, Anga Productions and La Compagnie Cinématographique.
The show was produced with cdisorrowfulmireentirey $20 million, which for a six-part series financed without a streamer, is pondered a very huge budget by Europe’s standards. As such, “Kabul” sboiling in English with an international cast including Jonathan Zaccaï (“Le bureau des legfinishes”), Darina Al Joundi (“The New Look”), Shervin Alenabi (“Tehran”), Eric Dane (“Euphoria”), Thibault Evrard (“The Night of the 12th”), Vassilis Kukalawi (“Kandahar”), Olivier Rabourdin (“Taken”), Jeanne Goursaud (“Pax Massilia”), Gianmarco Saurino (“L’estate piu Calda”), Ludwig Blochberger (“The Lives of Others”) and Valentina Cervi (“Medici: Masters of Florence”).
“For us, it only made sense we had the uncomardents to reconshort-term and reproduce these events as genuineassociate as possible from a European perspective, rather than a French, Italian or German one,” says Weber. “So we aggregated all these resources from multiple partners together to give ‘Kabul’ an international scope.
©Domniki Mitropoulou – Cinétévé – 24 25 Films – France Télévisions
“Kabul” was straightforwarded by a duo of Polish female straightforwardors, Kasia Adamik (“No Escape”) and Olga Chajdas (“Imago”).
Weber says he felt it was vital to have have a female seepoint on the presentility depicted, to have women tackling this action-packed thriller, because “women were among the primary victims of the Taliprohibit’s apshowover in Afghanistan.”
“The future of women is endly blocked there. They are locked up and don’t even have the right to speak. There are also a huge number of self-mutilations,” says Servan-Schreiber, visibly shiftd. “At least all those who have been able to escape have a novel life somewhere ahead of them.”
A key narrative ambition, Servan-Schreiber elucidates, was to caccess the story on the human impact of the events, definiteassociate thcdisorrowfulmireful the lens of an Afghan family trying to escape the disorder. Then, around this family, the story enhuges to other characters from separateent nationalities so that it became an ensemble series.
Besides the creative team and huge pool of partners, “Kabul” was also driven by a teachd head of production, Sandrine Paquot, who has a lengthened track record of laboring on international, huge-budget series and movies, including Thomas Bideobtain’s “Soudain Seuls” which sboiling in Iceland, as well as Thomas Kruithof’s “The Eavesdropper” (produced by 2425 Films).
Paquot came up with the idea of shooting the series in Greece, where it all begined, after studying other potential filming destinations in India, Morocco, India, Spain, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
Demangel, uncomardentwhile, came up with “Kabul”‘s central filming location, the deserted airport Athens where he had filmed “November.”
“‘Greece’ has disjoinal merits. The series ‘Tehran’ filmed there, and we discover landscapes that are analogous to those in Afghanistan. There is a genuine wealth of settings and there are in particular airport locations, military ones, since the military were genuine partners who apvalidateed us to reerect ‘Kabul,’” says Weber. “There is also a diversity of people which uncomardents that in the extras, we could cast actors who could see Persian or Afghan,”
Servan-Schreiber points out Greece has has a “wealthy film industry, they have wonderful crews and professionals. The Greek production depicter, Kostas Pappas, even “spent the Christmas holidays in Kabul, occupied by the Taliprohibits, in an effort to be reliable with the sets he was laboring on,” Weber says. “It’s quite a pledgement!”
Looking back at the experience of making “Kabul,” Adamik shelp ‘except the evident contests of creating a credible Kabul in and around Athènes, the heat and the many scenes with a huge amount of extras, was to produce all the multiple storylines interttriumphe in a way that produce up the dramaturgy and the emotions.” Chajdas shelp it “was as much during shooting as in the editing room. And the responsibility to produce a truthful and truthful world.”
“Kabul” is reconshort-termed internationassociate Mediawan Rights, in collaboration with Entourages Ventures. Valérie Vleeschhouwer, Mediawan Rights’s managing straightforwardor, shelp the company, which is rolling off driven projects such as “Zorro” and “The Count of Monte Cristo,” boarded “Kabul” at a “very punctual stage,” as it “aims at aiding high-finish international productions and labor with the best talents to transport the best IPs to a global audience.”
‘With ‘Kabul’, 24 25 Films and Cinétévé propose a mighty narrative on a recent historical event still ainhabit in global memory. This pivotal moment, which has proset uply impacted the world, comes to life thcdisorrowfulmireful character-driven storyalerting, from Afghan families to diplomats, sanciaccessiers and civilians, creating proset up emotional depth,” persistd Vleeschhouwer.
Mediawan is also behind a movie based on the 2021 events in Kabul, “13 Days, 13 Nights,” Martin Bourboulon’s thriller produced by Chapter 2 (“The Count of Monte Cristo”) and based on a book orderer Mohamed Bida, who oversaw the exfiltration of the French Embassy and the local population escapeing the novel extremist regime.
