25/03/2025 - The directors of Belgian outfit A Private View and of French company Les Films d’Antoine discuss the project presented at the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions of the Series Mania Forum

Dries Phlypo (left) and Antoine Simkine

Belgian outfit A Private View (recently noticed in cinemas with Night Call [+see also:
film review
interview: Michiel Blanchart
film profile]) and French company Les Films d’Antoine have come together for the series project Heist (6 x 60’), selected in the Co-Pro Pitching Session of the Series Mania Forum (read the article), taking place in Lille where we met the two producers Dries Phlypo and Antoine Simkine.

Cineuropa: Where did the idea for Heist come from?
Antoine Simkine: Documentarian François Bergeron and war reporter Xavier Muntz came to see me with the fruit of their research about an incredible true story: the biggest bank heist of all time, which took place during the civil war in Lebanon in 1970. This proposition was clearly out of the ordinary, so I thought about it and I decided a mini-series was needed to explore the subject in depth. And since I know Dries Phlypo very well through the ACE Producers network, I approached him to know whether he’d be interested in co-producing and developing this concept.

Dries Phlypo: When Antoine pitched the idea to me, this story that took place in the 1970s, I had the feeling it absolutely needed to be told today and that it really made sense. Imagine being part of a little group of six people planning the biggest bank heist of all time while civil war is going on, with all the terror this implies! Why are they doing this? How? And why does this bank still operate? There are so many elements to this story that I was immediately hooked.

The writing was entrusted to Ben Braeunlich. Why him?
DP: The idea was therefore brought to us by two journalists and Antoine and I went for a French-Belgian co-production. We drew up a list of potential screenwriters and started approaching them. A British producer I know and with whom I’d been talking about the project suggested Ben. Ben has lived in Lebanon, he’d already done some research there and he knows the region rather well. And if we look at what he has worked on, we notice that there’s always something political in his writing. So Antoine and I met him and we immediately agreed.

AS: At this stage, we have a bible, the structure of six episodes and the first episode is pretty much written. But what’s important is that the concept is there. We enter the story through the eyes of the main character whose only objective is the heist, and who must bring together a team of local specialists. He knows absolutely nothing about the ongoing events and isn’t interested in that at all, but he does know he’s arriving in the middle of a civil war. The heist team is made up of people who know each other well, who grew up together, but who are now stuck in the civil war: some are phalangists, others are pro-Palestine, they fight, but they have to come together for the heist. The audience will therefore discover the situation through the eyes of someone who knows absolutely nothing. Like in all heist films, there are antagonists within the team, ready to die for different reasons, but in this case, these are very serious reasons since the civil war is raging on. It is therefore an entertaining story since it’s a heist, but we also dive into this kind of situation where enemies, who were once friends, now want to kill each other. With the second episode, we change protagonists, we revisit certain events which allows us to better understand them and we move forward under a new angle. Then we move on to another character, etc. The audience therefore puts together the whole themselves, little by little, like in a mind game with surprising ingredients that add up to the heist story.

Which partners do you have?
DP: Our goal is to identify, here in Series Mania, the ideal partner to go further in project development. This could be a platform, a traditional TV broadcaster, an international sales agent or other co-producers. We will therefore evaluate the interest generated by our pitching and then choose. We will refine the budget throughout the development, but we’re starting from a basis of 1,5M per episode. All will then depend on the writing and on how we will shoot this story.

AS: The film will be in French and in Arabic because at that time, French was spoken fluently. Also, the main character is a Corsican mafioso. But this is an international story: the bank in the heist is an English bank. We are therefore totally open because the project can be structured in different dimensions depending on potential partners.

Where will you be shooting?
DP: We are already in talks with a Greek producer because many scenes could easily be shot in Greece. Some exteriors will also have to be shot in Lebanon, but that is possible even now, despite the current complications.

AS: 1976 Beirut doesn’t exist anywhere, so there will inevitably be some VFX. To what extent? That will depend on the budget, and so on potential partners. But the heart of the story is what it is now, there we will be able to adjust the spectacular and intimate dimensions. Hans Herbots, who co-directed the series The Serpent [+see also:
trailer
series profile], is already attached to the project, which gives a good idea of the artistic quality we are aiming for, in terms of style and reenactment.

What are your other current projects?
DP: We are currently shooting Dust by Anke Blondé (read the article), starring Arieh Worthalter and Jan Hammenecker. Then, two animated films and an animated series (Mister Paper season 2) will enter into production.

AS: This week, we are releasing The Islanders [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Alanté Kavaité in French theatres. We have the debut feature Amoeba by Siyou Tan approaching the end of post-production, a co-production with Singapour, the Netherlands and Spain. We are also shooting the documentary Observation by Benoît Delépine.

(Translated from French)