German young-adult limited series Shadow Leaks now in post-production
by Olivia Popp
- Özgür Yildirim and Alison Kuhn’s episodic project scheduled for broadcast through ARD tackles pertinent themes of cyberbullying and hacker attacks
Shadow Leaks, a new six-part German thriller-drama show for young-adult audiences, is currently in post-production. The limited series was most recently presented in the Buyers Upfront strand of the Series Mania Forum in Lille by Beta Film, which is handling international sales for the project.
Based on a bestselling novel, the show tackles issues of the contemporary digital age, including cyberbullying and hacker attacks. The original book was written by German video creator, actor and social-media star Jonas Ems, known for his immensely popular YouTube, Instagram and TikTok accounts. The main cast is led by Samirah Breuer, Florian Geißelmann, Ludger Bökelmann, Tanya Nguyen, Marven Gabriel Suarez Brinkert and Ems himself. The directors attached to the project are Özgür Yildirim and Alison Kuhn, while the cinematographer is Matthias Bolliger. The scripts are penned by Hanna Hribar and Ems.
Breuer stars as Nola, a high-school student entering a new school but in her last year of secondary education. During a memorial for a late student, Linus, a mysterious website reveals the most intimate digital secrets of the students, sending all of the information to everyone's phones. Nola thus embarks on a quest to prevent the leaks with Linus's best friend Corvin (Geißelmann), but further intrigue ensues as they follow the path to figure out exactly who's behind the web page and how it might be connected to the death of Linus.
Production for the series took place in and around Berlin from September to November 2024. Shadow Leaks is being produced by Dreamtool Entertainment GmbH for ARD Degeto Film, funk and Hessischer Rundfunk, with additional funding from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. The series is set to be broadcast first for German-language audiences through the ARD Mediathek.
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