The first clapperboard has slammed on the collaborative effort We're on It, Comrades!, a joint project between Czech Television and German broadcaster ZDF. The eight-part comedic mystery miniseries stars Jiří Macháček as investigator David Zajíc, a paranormal sceptic, and Jan Cina as the naive and enthusiastic scientist Vojta Bek. The duo investigates alien abductions, religious miracles and monster attacks, while being pursued by State Security agents Snížková (Anna Fialová) and Hora (Leoš Noha).

“In 1980s Czechoslovakia, there was indeed an institution that dealt with paranormal phenomena, and we were inspired by this institution for our series. It will be full of mysteries that have real explanations, but occasionally, our investigators will find that not everything can be explained rationally,” says producer and director Matěj Chlupáček, who previously collaborated with Czech Television on the crime miniseries Rats, which has been sold to Australia and additional Eastern territories.

Chlupáček shares directing duties with emerging talent Michal Samir, while the script has been penned by Miro Šifra, Lucie Vaňková and Marie Stará. The directors and scriptwriters hail from the young, yet prolific, domestic production outfit Barletta Production, where Chlupáček is the CEO and main producer alongside Maja Hamplová, who is also attached to the project as a producer. The company has already delivered several series, including the aforementioned Rats and the biopic miniseries Iveta, about a Czech pop star with a tragic fate; the firm is currently hard at work on its third season. Barletta Production is known for its genre-tinged, arthouse-leaning work, and We're on It, Comrades! taps into the prevailing retro pop-culture fad.

The series revives the tradition of fantasy projects created through collaborations between Czechoslovakia and West Germany, including beloved classics such as the 1983 family sci-fi series The Visitors, the 1983 family fantasy series The Flying Cestmír by Václav Vorlíček and Vorlíček's beloved 1980 fantasy-adventure show Arabela. “As children, we all loved these series, produced by Czechoslovak Television in co-production with West Germany. They were entertaining, full of imagination and suitable for the whole family. We are pleased that our show has attracted not only Czech Television, but also Germany’s ZDF, and after decades, we have renewed our collaboration,” explains producer Maja Hamplová.

Chlupáček confirmed to Cineuropa that post-production is slated for autumn 2023, with the series set to air in spring 2024. The entire shoot is taking place in the Czech Republic. Chlupáček also revealed to Cineuropa that the team is using a significant amount of VFX and SFX, managed by veteran SFX supervisor Boris Masník, who worked on The Visitors and Chlupáček's hotly anticipated sophomore feature, We Have Never Been Modern (previously known as Dawn – see the news).

We're on It, Comrades! is being produced by Matěj Chlupáček and Maja Hamplová for Barletta Production, and by Robert Schaefer and Bettina Wente from German outfit Network Movie. The project has received support from the Czech Film Fund, the Slovak Audiovisual Fund and the Moravian-Silesian Region, while the series will also benefit from the Czech system of incentives (see the news). ZDF is handling the international sales.