Jakob et Jonas Weydemann - Par tous les moyens - Vidéo Dailymotion

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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

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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.

Jakob et Jonas Weydemann - Par tous les moyens

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