Jakob et Jonas Weydemann - Par tous les moyens
Les co-créateurs de la série allemande "Par tous les moyens" ou "A Thin Line" en VO présentent leur série.
Retrouvez-nous sur BetaSeries.com
Retrouvez-nous sur BetaSeries.com
Transcript
00:00 Beta Série La Radio, media partner of the festival Série Mania.
00:05 I have the honor to interview Jakob Weidemann and Jonas Weidemann,
00:10 creators and producers of the German series ThinLine,
00:14 a first-time international here in the Panorama section
00:17 for this series Originals by Paramount+.
00:21 Hi guys, thanks very much to be with us today.
00:23 Thank you.
00:24 So, this very nervous thriller is about
00:28 cyber activism and environment protection.
00:31 Who wants to pitch us the series?
00:33 ThinLine is actually the story of two twin sisters, Anna and Benny,
00:40 who are, as you said, cyber activists for the environment
00:45 and they run an anonymous leaking platform called Climate Leaks,
00:49 where they expose environmental crimes.
00:52 And when they break into the Ministry of Transportation in Germany
00:56 and steal 30 secrets about the minister,
00:59 the police gets onto them and one of them is arrested
01:03 and the other one goes underground.
01:05 And then they grow more and more apart
01:08 as one becomes more and more radical
01:10 and the other has more and more doubts about if that is the right way.
01:14 I don't want to spoil more of it, so you should watch it.
01:17 Yeah, it's about climate activism and the thin moral lines.
01:23 How far do you have to go? How far are you allowed to go?
01:27 Which is the line you can never cross?
01:30 A thin line, yeah.
01:31 So, who had the idea of it and why?
01:36 I suspect, of course, that there are many, many reasons
01:38 and what we live currently,
01:40 but what has been the initial input?
01:43 The subject matter, the topics,
01:48 we wanted to create a show about cyber activism.
01:56 We were very interested in the hacking aspects,
01:59 in the details of that,
02:00 how our digital world is so deeply intertwined
02:05 with our physical world everywhere already
02:08 and how the climate catastrophe, obviously,
02:13 we perceive as the most pressing topic of our times.
02:18 And the young generation that lead the environmental movement
02:23 and are climate activists are so kind of digital natives
02:28 and so used to those tools
02:30 that we found those were two topics that go along well
02:34 and give room for a great kind of entertaining show
02:39 in the thriller aspect, the genre aspect as well.
02:43 As you said, it's a nervous, fast-paced thing.
02:47 And that gives room to talk about political issues
02:51 that interested us.
02:53 And then it came as the subject was first, maybe.
02:58 For us, it's very important that you deliver it
03:01 and that you can go as an audience through it
03:05 very close to the characters.
03:06 So, the main conflict, we being brothers,
03:09 had the feeling, starting off with two twin sisters
03:12 being very close to each other, having the same goal,
03:16 but then throughout the whole series,
03:20 they have to, like being so much apart from each other
03:23 is the biggest emotional conflict
03:25 we can directly set up with a family situation.
03:29 Yeah, and it's actually finding the characters
03:33 or defining them and their emotional journey
03:36 is the most important because when you start with a topic,
03:40 it's the trap that you can always fall into
03:44 which is that it becomes too topical.
03:46 And of course, to make a good TV show,
03:50 I feel the most important is the characters.
03:53 So, I would always pitch it as the story
03:55 about the two sisters and not a story about climate change
03:58 or climate activism because you have to root
04:00 with those characters.
04:01 And that's what we can do with fictional storytelling,
04:04 you know, attach you emotionally to the journey
04:07 of a character and then by that,
04:10 talk about topics that interest us.
04:13 You could be topic-centric because so many things happen,
04:16 it's very active, but it's true that immediately we feel
04:19 there is a strong relation between the sisters
04:22 and we don't really identify at the beginning
04:27 who is really the stronger because there is one
04:29 more technical and the other is more maybe social
04:32 and then, yeah, there is a split and I'm not spoiling
04:36 because very quickly, I mean, the thin line appears.
04:39 So, that's interesting because from the very beginning,
04:42 we see these two characters having a different journey.
04:47 I don't know how far it will go.
04:48 It will be very interesting for us to go to the end also
04:52 because there is clearly a story between the characters.
04:55 So, this theme echoes current debates, of course,
05:01 digital and hacking.
05:03 I mean, we have this touch of Mr. Robot somewhere
05:06 in the show, but also the eco-thrillers.
05:09 That is a trend here we see more and more
05:11 in series mania, but not so many series to date
05:15 on the subject.
05:16 Have you been influenced by specific series, movies,
05:19 maybe documentaries or books or how did you make
05:22 your research to be very credible on that subject?
05:27 Yeah, books, I would definitely say.
05:31 We did a lot of research.
05:33 We did interviews, spoke to activists, of course,
05:38 but also hacktivists, hackers, also journalists.
05:46 We had a group of different consultants
05:50 and we led interviews.
05:52 We led interviews also with the German cybercrime unit
05:55 and how's their police work actually.
05:58 So, it's important and we wanted it to feel grounded.
06:02 And yeah, it's not supposed to be a sci-fi show.
06:07 So, that was important for us and it's a huge honor
06:10 if you say you feel the Mr. Robot touch there
06:13 because that was a show I loved definitely,
06:15 but of course it has a very different kind of topic
06:18 and theme and characters that it talks about,
06:20 so it would not be a reference in that sense.
06:24 But there have been books in the climate activism
06:28 or climate debate.
06:30 There's one book I could name which is called
06:34 "How to Blow Up a Pipeline" by Andreas Malm,
06:38 which was published in the time around
06:41 when we started working on that subject.
06:44 Because I would say it's less an ecological thriller
06:47 than I would say it's about activism.
06:51 And that was something that interested us
06:55 and we felt very current in the debate,
06:58 like where does activism go
07:01 in a topic that is so huge
07:05 and the threat that is perceived is so pressing
07:08 and so ticking.
07:12 What does that do to activism if you realize
07:15 that the world is not changing fast enough
07:18 to meet that threat and the frustrations that builds up?
07:23 Yeah, because there is a thin line.
07:25 You would think at the beginning it's about mankind,
07:27 a good part, a good side and a bad side.
07:29 But then you don't really know.
07:31 Is it the moral on one, the society moral,
07:35 the duty we have to take this into, you know,
07:38 to be active and concerned about it?
07:41 So there is no choice, you know,
07:44 and everybody has to make up his mind, I suppose.
07:47 And if that happens as you just described it,
07:50 then it's like what we wanted.
07:52 Because talking about so important social issues
07:58 with a fictionalized work,
08:01 then you want the audience to have the possibility
08:04 to see and feel the different kind of perspectives,
08:07 which in real life is much harder.
08:09 There's a case and then you have to like take sides often.
08:13 So it's kind of, yeah, that's what we wanted.
08:16 All right.
08:17 So this is a Power One Plus original series,
08:19 released in Germany and very soon all over Europe.
08:22 Last question.
08:23 Did you know from day one it would be an international show,
08:26 like it will be?
08:28 And did you make something specific to make it international?
08:32 Yes, we knew from the beginning.
08:34 When Paramount approached us and wanted to make that show with us,
08:40 it was clear from the beginning that they wanted to make it a global show.
08:44 That did not influence us in the way we would have told it different.
08:54 If it had been only for a German audience.
08:56 And we also worked with a German team of Paramount,
09:02 so it was not influenced by them in a kind of direct relationship
09:06 that American Paramount team would have come to us
09:10 and they need to make it in this and that way.
09:12 It was a great relationship working with them
09:14 and because we started it was, you know,
09:16 we really developed it in a very short timeline side by side with them.
09:20 Okay, excellent.
09:22 So we're looking forward to watching, you know,
09:24 a thin line on all European screens.
09:27 Thanks a lot.
09:28 I wish a great success here for the series in the competition
09:31 and also for the upcoming distribution in France, in Europe and in the world.
09:36 See you soon on Beta Cérilla Radio.
09:37 Thank you again.
09:38 Thank you.
09:39 Beta Cérilla Radio, Media Partner of the Cérimania Festival.
09:45 Beta Cérilla Radio, Media Partner of the Cérimania Festival.