Beta Film has closed first deals for its Croatian-Ukrainian crime drama series The Silence. The six-hour series about human trafficking goes to ZDF/ARTE, which comes on board as co-producer. Beta has signed deals with HBO Europe for CEE region, as well as with Lumière for Flemish speaking Benelux. Further territories are currently being negotiated.

The series by HRT and Drugi Plan in coproduction with Beta Film, Star Media, OLL.TV and ZDF/ARTE is based on the critically acclaimed books by Drago Hedl that uncovered human and weapons trafficking throughout Eastern Europe.

Highly praised by the Italian press, the books were listed among the 33 best European crime novels of 2018. In attendance of leading actress Kseniia Mishina (Fair Trade), ‘The Silence’ world premiered at NEM Dubrovnik last summer.

The Silence is among a growing slate of prestige productions Beta is selling from the Eastern European region as part of the company’s new initiative to co-finance and co-produce more projects in the area.

The story evolves around a series of girls found dead: the first drowned; the second overdosed, the third hit by a car. It appears there is a serial killer in Osijek, Croatia. Vladimir, the detective on the case, is plagued by personal hardship. It is Stribor, a reporter, who notches him towards a maze of corruption, trafficking, and politics where the most vulnerable girls are victimized. When Ukrainian expat Olga, wife of a powerful politician, finds her niece to be one of the victims, the three form an unlikely team. Together they plunge into the depths of underage trafficking that crosses Eastern European borders.