Beta Film has taken world sales rights to drama series “Other People’s Money,” which will make its world premiere next month in the Berlinale’s Panorama section.
The series centers on Europe’s biggest tax fraud ever. It tells the story of how a criminal network of megarich investors, bankers and lawyers stole €146 billion ($153 billion) from European taxpayers.
The showrunner and creator is Jan Schomburg (“I’m Your Man,” “Above Us Only Sky”). The producers are Michael Polle at X Filme Creative Pool (“Babylon Berlin”), Ole Søndberg (“Millennium” trilogy) at True Content Entertainment, and EPO-Film. The show is backed by broadcasters ZDF, DR and New8, which is a group of public broadcasters from northern and western Europe.
“Other People’s Money” is the latest addition to Beta’s Berlinale lineup, headed by the Berlinale’s opening film “The Light” by Tom Tykwer (“Babylon Berlin,” “Run Lola Run”), starring Lars Eidinger (“Babylon Berlin,” “Dying”) and the Panorama world premiere “Cicadas” by Ina Weisse (“The Audition”), starring Nina Hoss (“Yella,” “Barbara,” “Tár”).
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“Other People’s Money” is inspired by the “CumEx-Files” investigation by European news media outlets that uncovered a global finance network which defrauded European state treasuries, and thus every European citizen, of €146 billion. The eight-hour series follows the culprits, as well as two women from two different countries trying to put a stop to it – but the states and the banks seem to prevent their efforts at all costs.
The series stars Lisa Wagner (“From Hilde, With Love,” “The Pool”), Karen-Lise Mynster (“Madame Ida”), Justus von Dohnanyi (“Downfall”), Niels Strunk, David Dencik (“No Time to Die,” “Chernobyl”), and Fabian Hinrichs (“Divided We Stand”), among others. Dustin Loose (“Divided We Stand”) and Kaspar Munk (“The Rain,” “Kamikaze”) share directing credits. Directors of photography are Clemens Baumeister (“Divided We Stand”) and Laust Trier Mørk (“The Responder”).
The series is co-funded by Fisa+, GMPF, the European Union, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the Nordvisions Fund and Croatian Audiovisual Center.