TV Beats Co-Financing Market
The Reluctant Contact
On a remote Arctic Island, a brutal murder triggers increasing paranoia in a Cold War Soviet mining outpost. Keeping out of KGB trouble and living on his wits, the mine’s engineer is lured into a dangerous affair with a mysterious femme fatale, plotting her risky escape to the West.
Svalbard, Arctic Circle, 1977. In Pyramiden, a Soviet mining outpost on Norwegian territory, Ukrainian mine engineer Yuri still plays by Stalin-era rules: Look after number one. Yet when a coworker is found dead, Yuri decides to investigate. Simultaneously, he begins a stormy affair with the volatile Anya who has come here to meet an unknown contact. Another new arrival is Katrin, an avid communist from West Germany. However, Timur, Pyramiden’s KGB officer is suspicious of this foreigner and blackmails Yuri into spying on her. Meanwhile, Yuri discovers that Anya intends to defect to the West. Yuri agrees to help her, while also being acutely aware that there is still a murderer in Pyramiden. When Anya’s contact finally reveals himself, Yuri is even more unsettled. The man, Grigory, Pyramiden’s senior communist party official, is Yuri's close friend. While Pyramiden is frozen in twenty-four-hour darkness, Yuri finds himself in a dangerous world of secrets and conflicting agendas.
Keywords: individual vs society, isolation
Established in Ireland in 2002, Mammoth Films is one of Ireland's leading independent feature film production companies. Named as one of the top 75 European co-production companies by Screen International in 2022. The company has been awarded slate funding by Screen Ireland and Creative Europe. Recent credits include: the feature films Wolf (writer/dir. Nathalie Biancheri), starring George McKay and Lily Rose-Depp; critically acclaimed feature film Maze (writer/dir. Stephen Burke); drama documentary Citizen Lane (dir. Thaddeus O’Sullivan); and the Italian co-productions L’Accabadora (dir. Enrico Pau), Shadows (dir. Carlo Lavagna).
Chris Farrer has 25 years of experience in drama development. Before Shaftesbury, Chris was Head of Development at Catalyst Global Media (Finding Your Feet, Ghost Stories, Slaughterhouse Rulez), and worked in TV development for the BBC, Company Pictures, and Carnival Films on Silent Witness, The White Princess, and Sea of Souls. He started his career working on long-running UK shows, The Bill, Merseybeat, and Emmerdale. For Shaftesbury, Chris manages their slate of co-productions.
James Mitchell has had a long and varied career, producing films and television. He has frequently worked in partnership with Jane Doolan and is particularly pleased that their respective companies Soho Moon and Mammoth, have agreed to partner as the Irish co-producers of ‘The Reluctant Contact’.James’s credits include: International Co-Productions: TV series ‘The Writing On The Wall’ (WDR/BBC) starring Denis Haysbert and William H. Macy; ‘Relative Strangers’ (WDR/RTÉ) starring Oscar winner Brenda Fricker; TV movie ‘All For Love’ (BBC/WDR/France 2), directed by Harry Hook, written by Allan Cubitt, starring Jean-Marc Barr and Richard E. Grant. European Cinema: ‘Croupier’ (Film Four/WDR/ARTE Cinema) directed by Mike Hodges, starring Clive Owen; ‘Invincible’ (Fine Line/Film Four) directed by Werner Herzog, starring Tim Roth; Werner Herzog’s feature documentary ‘Klaus Kinski Mein Liebster Feind’ (ARTE/WDR). Recent credits include television drama ‘Death and Nightingales’ for BBC2, based on Eugene McCabe’s novel, written and directed by Allan Cubitt, starring Matthew Rhys and Jamie Dornan. Currently, the Third Season of thriller series ‘Hidden Assets’ (RTÉ/Acorn TV) has gone into production, filming in Dublin, Bilbao and Antwerp, whilst Season 4 is in development; an Irish-Belgian co-production, ‘Hidden Assets’ has been widely sold, including licensing to the BBC, France Télévisions and SBS Australia.
Born and raised in Dublin, Stephen Burke studied film at the Dublin Institute of Technology. His first feature film was Happy Ever Afters, starring Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins. His directing work for television includes the TV film Anner House, based on a story by Maeve Binchy; and the award winning state of the nation series No Tears, which won Best Drama Series at the Monte Carlo TV festival in 2002. He began his writing and directing career making multi-award winning short films about the conflict in Northern Ireland - After '68 and 81. A father of three children, he lives and works between Ireland and Italy.
Recent credits include: Dublin-set drama series Northern Lights from Deadpan Pictures for Lionsgate, TG4 and Streamz, written by and co-starring Stephen Jones; Kin from Headline Pictures for AMC and RTÉ, created by Ciaran Donnelly and written by Peter McKenna; SisterS from Peer Pressure and Shaftesbury, starring Sarah Goldberg and Susan Stanley, for Crave, RTÉ and IFC; Smother from BBC Studios and Treasure Entertainment for UKTV and RTÉ, written by Kate Riordan.