Telewizja Polska (TVP), Poland’s largest and longest-running television network, announced production has been completed on its new Second World War historical thriller series, The Bay of Spies (9×45’). The Polish-language series is due to TX on TVP in on January 7th 2024.
Set in 1940s Gdynia, The Bay of Spies is directed by Michał Rogalski, winner of the Screenplay Award at the World Film Festival in Montreal for his film Summer Solstice. Based on true events, the story follows Franz Neumann, a young Nazi Abwehr officer, who discovers that his real father was Polish. Using this information to his advantage Franz becomes a spy for the Allies with the code name ‘Got’. His task is to obtain information about the activities of the German Navy, the ‘Kriegsmarine’, and report back to the allies. Using his charm and charisma, Franz manipulates the men he gets close to, makes women fall in love with him, and snakes his way into the German elite.
With the threat of his cover being blown at any moment, entangled in relationships with three different women, and suspected of treason by the Germans and the Poles, he must break all the rules and completely change his value system to survive. Leading the audience to ask whether honor matters if everything around you is a lie?
TVP commissioned the series from production company Akson Studio. It boasts an award-winning creative team, with the screenplay co-written by Michał Godzic (Chasing Dreams, Wartime Girls) and Wojciech Lepianka (My Father’s Bike). Wanda Kowalska, the series costume designer, recently received the Eagle Award at Gdynia Film Festival and an award at Waterloo Historical Film Festival and award-winning makeup artist Dariusz Krysiak is the chairman for the Guild of Polish Film, Television and Theatre Make-up Artists.
Aleksandra Kaźmieruk, Head of Global Distribution at TVP, says, “As well as acting as a tribute to the architects and engineers who built the city of Gdynia before the war, commissioning the series is a key part of TVP’s mission-oriented programming strategy to push original content that is created by Polish talent for Polish audiences, as well as having an international appeal. This show has everything you need in a series – beautiful cinematography, music, costumes and unexpected plot twists against the background of a little-known but incredibly important part of Second World War History.”
