20/11/2024 – Led by former TV Beats head honcho Jevgeni Supin, the joint Estonian-Latvian-German-Italian project has become one of Estonia’s biggest to date
l-r: Helen Lõhmus, Jevgeni Supin and Johanna Nunnu Karppinen during the panel
On 19 November, the Nordic Hotel Forum’s Capella hosted a 30-minute case study focusing on the making of the Estonian-Latvian-German-Italian period drama series Von Fock. The “Brutally Honest Case Study” session, moderated by COO and head of International at Finland’s Post Control Johanna Nunnu Karppinen, featured Jevgeni Supin from Zolba, Helen Lõhmus from Orée Films, Gunda Bergmane from Nafta Films, ZDF Studios representative Mirela Nastase and Markus Frings from Movie.mento. The talk was held as part of this year’s Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event programme, running alongside the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival from 15-22 November.
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Together, the team developed and financed the series, consisting of two 4×45-minute seasons, which premiered at the Estonian gathering on the same day. Directed by Arun Tamm, it follows the heir to Sagadi Manor as he negotiates a web of murders and missing fortunes. The cast includes Priit Pius, Aurora Ruffino and Sten Karpov.
Supin explained on stage how the long-gestating project began in 2021 when they “stumbled upon” historian and museum director Ain Kütt’s series of books, on which the show is based. “The Baltic Germans were Estonia’s ruling class for over 800 years, so for us, it was very logical to set up a co-production,” he stated.
In 2022, the team secured development funding from the Estonian Film Institute and a commission from local public broadcaster ERR. They soon began seeking co-producers, broadcasters and distributors to join the project. For Supin, it was clear from the outset that it would have been impossible to finalise a project of this scale with Estonian funding alone.
By 2023, they had entered talks with potential German partners, securing pre-sales agreements with several TV channels to cover additional territories. A German screenwriter, Lilian von Keudell, was brought on board to work alongside Estonia’s Leana Jalukse, while Helen Lõhmus, Markus Frings and Gunda Bergmane joined as foreign co-producers from Estonia, Italy and Latvia, respectively.
The team then applied for support from Creative Europe – MEDIA’s TV & Online scheme, LIAA, the Riga Film Fund and IDM, among other sources. Meanwhile, Jalukse and von Keudell began penning the script.
“Things moved like a snowball. LRT and LTV came on board, and others followed suit,” Supin recalled. Frings explained the connection between the series’ subject matter and the Baltic Germans, noting its relevance to his background. “We’re from a German-speaking minority in Italy, and when I first spoke to IDM, they said it was something that could fit their needs,” he said. Frings travelled to Cannes’ Mipcom for a brief but pivotal meeting with Supin, which proved crucial for moving the project forward.
In 2024, the team began “soft pre-production”, receiving further funding from LIAA and IDM while applying for the Council of Europe’s TV Series co-production support scheme. Despite the budget not being finalised, the co-production partners took a shared risk and launched full pre-production. Filming began on 24 May, even though the team admitted they weren’t certain they could complete the series. Supin and Lõhmus explained that, in the worst-case scenario, they would have used the existing footage to continue pitching the project.
The rushed production process led to significant challenges, such as having to source over 100 costumes in just one month and paying €200,000 in rental fees to Tirelli, an Oscar-winning historical costume house in Rome.
Ultimately, Von Fock became a Green Film-certified, Estonian-led project, with substantial backing from Latvia, Italy, Germany’s ZDF and the distributor’s minimum guarantee.
“Communication is not always easy – we come from different places and backgrounds,” concluded Frings, “but the most important thing is trust. If you don’t trust [your partners], you’ll never get far. That’s what united us at the end of the day.”
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Publish date : 2024-11-20 02:28:00
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