The Taliban’s sweep to power in Afghanistan in 2021 serves as the backdrop to “Kabul,” one of France’s most ambitious international thriller dramas to date.
The six-part geopolitical show, which is world premiering today at Series Mania in Lille, emerged from the first-hand experience of producer Fabienne Servan-Schreiber who played a direct role in the chaotic evacuation efforts.
While vacationing in Greece with her son (and fellow producer) Matthias Weber, Servan-Schreiber heard of the situation in Kabul and got fully involved in efforts to rescue multiple families of Afghan artists and doctors.
Speaking to Variety along with Weber on the eve of “Kabul”‘s presentation at Series Mania, Servan-Schreiber says she was initially contacted by Jean-Michel Frodon, a film historian and journalist, who was looking for help to raise funds to buy plane tickets for a group of Afghan artists.
“I sent the email to everyone in my address book and got some great responses from people like Jane Birkin and others who said: ‘What can we do?’ Because people were very, very anxious about the situation,” says Servan-Schreiber who ultimately produced the series with Charlotte Ortiz at Cinétévé, and Matthias Weber and Thibault Gast at 24 25 Films, a Mediawan company.
“It was August 13th and two days later there were no more private planes. From that moment on, we had to get in touch with the French authorities and I spend an awful lot of time on emails, first with the French, then with the English, then with the Americans, then with the Qataris (who were directly in touch with the Talibans) so that we could help evacuate not only artists but also doctors,” she says, adding that what had started as a mission to raise funds to buy plane tickets became increasingly complexe.
By the end of this tumultuous summer, Weber, who had witnessed in awe the extent of his mother’s dedication to the cause, came up with the idea to make a series charting the events in Kabul.
“I was very impressed by the energy, the bold approach that Fabienne used in her discussions with the highest representatives of the State, and the fact that they were completely disarmed and powerless in the face of this situation,” he says.
Upon returning to Paris, the project took shape quickly as the producers enlisted Olivier Demangel, a renown screenwriter whose credits include the scripts of Cedric Jimenez’s “November” (set against the backdrop of the Paris terror attacks of 2015), the Omar Sy war drama “Father and Soldier,” Netflix’s French biopic series “Tapie,” as well as the award-winning interactive series “Wei or Die” produced by Servan-Schreiber’s Cinetévé banner.
“Olivier and his faithful collaborator Thomas Finkelkraut (“Baron Noir,” “Tapie”) have impressed us with their ability to create from reality and enhance it every time,” says Weber. “They understood that ‘Kabul’ was a “crazy ambition endeavor” and imagined there would be other projects on these events in Afghanistan, but Fabienne’s experience gave them a sense of legitimacy to be the ones to tell this story from a European perspective.” Demangel and Finkelkraut wrote the series with Joey Lavy (“The Shift”).
The other crucial step for the producers to get “Kabul” off the ground was to get the backing of French public broadcaster France Televisions. Manuel Alduy, the head of film and international development at the pubcaster, got excited about the series project and brought The Alliance on board, Weber said. The series was commissioned and co-produced by France Televisions and ZDF, along with Bnnvara in the Netherlands, VRT in Belgium, SVT in Sweden, DR in Denmark, YLE in Finland, RUV in Iceland and NRK in Norway, in association with Rai in Italy. The extensive list of co-producers also include Panache Productions, Anga Productions and La Compagnie Cinématographique.
The show was produced with roughly $20 million, which for a six-part series financed without a streamer, is considered a very large budget by Europe’s standards. As such, “Kabul” shot in English with an international cast including Jonathan Zaccaï (“Le bureau des legendes”), Darina Al Joundi (“The New Look”), Shervin Alenabi (“Tehran”), Eric Dane (“Euphoria”), Thibault Evrard (“The Night of the 12th”), Vassilis Kukalawi (“Kandahar”), Olivier Rabourdin (“Taken”), Jeanne Goursaud (“Pax Massilia”), Gianmarco Saurino (“L’estate piu Calda”), Ludwig Blochberger (“The Lives of Others”) and Valentina Cervi (“Medici: Masters of Florence”).
“For us, it only made sense we had the means to represent and recreate these events as authentically as possible from a European perspective, rather than a French, Italian or German one,” says Weber. “So we aggregated all these resources from multiple partners together to give ‘Kabul’ an international scope.
©Domniki Mitropoulou – Cinétévé – 24 25 Films – France Télévisions
“Kabul” was directed by a duo of Polish female directors, Kasia Adamik (“No Escape”) and Olga Chajdas (“Imago”).
Weber says he felt it was important to have have a female viewpoint on the violence depicted, to have women tackling this action-packed thriller, because “women were among the primary victims of the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan.”
“The future of women is completely blocked there. They are locked up and don’t even have the right to speak. There are also a huge number of suicides,” says Servan-Schreiber, visibly moved. “At least all those who have been able to escape have a new life somewhere ahead of them.”
A key narrative ambition, Servan-Schreiber explains, was to center the story on the human impact of the events, specifically through the lens of an Afghan family trying to escape the chaos. Then, around this family, the story expands to other characters from different nationalities so that it became an ensemble series.
Besides the creative team and large pool of partners, “Kabul” was also driven by a experienced head of production, Sandrine Paquot, who has a long track record of working on international, big-budget series and movies, including Thomas Bidegain’s “Soudain Seuls” which shot in Iceland, as well as Thomas Kruithof’s “The Eavesdropper” (produced by 2425 Films).
Paquot came up with the idea of shooting the series in Greece, where it all started, after studying other potential filming destinations in India, Morocco, India, Spain, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
Demangel, meanwhile, came up with “Kabul”‘s central filming location, the deserted airport Athens where he had filmed “November.”
“‘Greece’ has several merits. The series ‘Tehran’ filmed there, and we find landscapes that are similar to those in Afghanistan. There is a real wealth of settings and there are in particular airport locations, military ones, since the military were real partners who allowed us to reconstruct ‘Kabul,’” says Weber. “There is also a diversity of people which means that in the extras, we could cast actors who could look Persian or Afghan,”
Servan-Schreiber points out Greece has has a “rich film industry, they have great crews and professionals. The Greek production designer, Kostas Pappas, even “spent the Christmas holidays in Kabul, occupied by the Talibans, in an effort to be consistent with the sets he was working on,” Weber says. “It’s quite a commitment!”
Looking back at the experience of making “Kabul,” Adamik said ‘except the obvious challenges of creating a credible Kabul in and around Athènes, the heat and the many scenes with a large amount of extras, was to make all the multiple storylines intertwine in a way that build up the dramaturgy and the emotions.” Chajdas said it “was as much during shooting as in the editing room. And the responsibility to create a truthful and honest world.”
“Kabul” is represented internationally Mediawan Rights, in collaboration with Entourages Ventures. Valérie Vleeschhouwer, Mediawan Rights’s managing director, said the company, which is rolling off ambitious projects such as “Zorro” and “The Count of Monte Cristo,” boarded “Kabul” at a “very early stage,” as it “aims at supporting high-end international productions and work with the best talents to bring the best IPs to a global audience.”
‘With ‘Kabul’, 24 25 Films and Cinétévé offer a powerful narrative on a recent historical event still alive in global memory. This pivotal moment, which has deeply impacted the world, comes to life through character-driven storytelling, from Afghan families to diplomats, soldiers and civilians, creating profound emotional depth,” continued Vleeschhouwer.
Mediawan is also behind a movie based on the 2021 events in Kabul, “13 Days, 13 Nights,” Martin Bourboulon’s thriller produced by Chapter 2 (“The Count of Monte Cristo”) and based on a book commander Mohamed Bida, who oversaw the exfiltration of the French Embassy and the local population fleeing the new extremist regime.
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