Factual

Keshet International (KI) has acquired a raft of factual content to launch to buyers at the London TV Screenings, alongside the first drama from Keshet Broadcasting’s 100M NIS slate (as previously announced on 29 November 2022).

KI’s new MD of Distribution Kelly Wright says, “The Sales team and I are thrilled to unveil this high-quality slate of newly acquired content to our clients attending the London TV Screenings. This year we are all coming together in person not to only launch our new slate of Keshet dramas, led by the excellent and heart-breaking A Body that Works, but to also participate in what is quickly becoming a very important gathering for international distributors like us.”

In a multi-title deal with MRP Matila Röhr Productions that includes four feature-length documentaries, more than 70 shorts, and two “making of” documentaries, KI has picked up their latest feature Tale of the Sleeping Giants (Tunturin Tarina), which recently opened in Finnish cinemas to critical acclaim and strong ticket sales, having taken three years to film in the arctic wilderness of Lapland. Described by Seiska magazine as “breathtakingly beautiful” with an “epic soundtrack” by award-winning composer Panu Aaltio, screenwriter Antti Tuuri’s vision of mountains as sleeping giants is a journey into the rich mythology of ancient Scandinavians told in the form of a nature movie. Following the lives of animals such as wolverines, reindeer, foxes, weasels, bears, humpback whales and more, Tale of the Sleeping Giants (Tunturin Tarina) explores the beliefs and stories associated with each while celebrating the mythical mountains, lakes and rivers of Lapland’s arctic wilderness. This package also includes the two earlier features in MRP’s trilogy of natural history features: Tale of a Forest (2013) and Tale of a Lake (2016), the biggest box office documentary in the history of Finnish cinema, and Nature Symphony (2019).

KI’s SVP of Acquisitions and Co-productions Anke Stoll comments, “We are in the process of expanding our catalog, so I’m thrilled to be partnering with MRP on our first acquisitions deal for natural history content. We’re looking forward to working with them to leverage their incredible archive of footage to produce new titles for a growing market of buyers of blue-chip natural history content.”
KI has also acquired the tape and format rights to Undercover: Sexual Harassment – The Truth, Kalel Productions’ current affairs documentary for Channel 4. Investigative journalist and broadcaster Ellie Flynn carries out hidden-camera experiments to expose the sexual harassment of women in the real world and online, from ‘dick pics’ to being flashed, groped, spiked and raped. In one experiment where Ellie pretends to be drunk on a night out, a man follows her all the way back to her hotel room, where she reveals she's sober and confronts him. Commissioned in the aftermath of the Sarah Everard tragedy, this 1x60’ investigation increased the public service broadcaster’s slot average by 46% and generated international news headlines and viral cutdowns all over social media when it premiered on Channel 4 on 12 December 2022.

KI’s scripted slate at London TV Screenings is headlined by Kuma Studios’ A Body that Works (Goof Shlishi), which will receive an exclusive buyers’ screening ahead of its international premiere at Series Mania 2023. The eight-part relationship drama has an intense triangle at its heart – one involving love, jealousy, desire, and selflessness – that sees a childless couple enlist the help of a surrogate.   Starring Rotem Sela (The Baker and the Beauty), Yehuda Levi (Fire Dancer), and Lior Raz (Fauda) alongside newcomer Gal Malaka, this intimate drama is written by Shira Hadad (Wisdom of the Crowd, Preso No1) and Dror Mishani (Wisdom of the Crowd, The Missing File) and directed by Shay Capon (The Writer, Dumb) - who are also all co-creators of this series. Ordered by Keshet Broadcasting’s Karni Ziv as the first of a 100M NIS slate of new dramas, A Body that Works (Goof Shlishi) will debut on Keshet 12 weekly from 13 February, ahead of its red-carpet premiere at Series Mania 2023 - one of 12 dramas selected in this year's International Panorama Competition.