Moral dilemmas and ethical questions, hope and grief, solidarity and cruelty, life and death are just some of the themes explored in the new Sky Original series UNWANTED, which will be broadcast exclusively on Sky in November in Germany, Austria, Switzerland as well as in the UK and Italy. The new teaser trailer has just been released.
About UNWANTED:
The Orizzonte cruise ship offers its 5,000 passengers fifteen restaurants, a theatre, nightclubs, shops, swimming pools and a spacious wellness area. A city on the water, cruising the Mediterranean to entertain its European guests and let them forget everyday life. Already on the first night at sea, reality catches up with the holidaymakers on their supposedly carefree journey when the ship rescues 28 African migrants from the Mediterranean. They are the survivors of a shipwreck in which more than 100 people died. On their way to Italy and fleeing hunger, war, slavery and persecution, the Orizzonte is both a rescue and the first step into a world the migrants had dreamed of. When the 28 survivors learn that the Orizzonte is heading back to Libya - the place from which they fled - the cruise ship becomes a burning glass for the global refugee crisis, human trafficking and the Western world's attempts to keep out "illegal" immigrants. On board the Orizzonte, humanity and cruelty, tolerance and racism, hope and grief, life and ultimately death inevitably collide.
The series is inspired by the book "Bilal" by the investigative journalist Fabrizio Gatti, who reports on his experiences during his journey along the Saharan routes, where not only refugees from Africa stay, but also many human traffickers who try to make a business out of the migrants' misery.
The eight-part series "Unwanted" is produced by Sky Studios in cooperation with PANTALEON Films and Indiana Production and directed by German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, known worldwide for films such as "Downfall", "Diana" with Naomi Watts and "Five Minutes of Heaven", which won an award at the Sundance Film Festival.
Stefano Bises wrote and developed the series with the collaboration of Alessandro Valenti, Bernardo Pellegrini and Michela Straniero. Unwanted" is produced for PANTALEON Films by Dan Maag, Marco Beckmann, Patrick Zorer, Stephanie Schettler-Kohler and producer Sascha Rosemann, who submitted the book by Fabrizio Gatti, and by Fabrizio Donvito, Benedetto Habib, Daniel Campos Pavoncelli and Marco Cohen for Indiana. Nils Hartmann and Sonia Rovai are responsible for Sky Studios. NBCUniversal Global Distribution is handling international distribution of the series on behalf of Sky Studios.
Filming was done in several languages, including Italian, English, German, French and many African dialects. The multicultural cast includes Marco Bocci, Jessica Schwarz, Dada Bozela, Hassan Najib, Jonathan Berlin, Jason Derek Prempeh, Cecilia Dazzi, Francesco Acquaroli, Barbara Auer, Sylvester Groth, Marco Palvetti, Denise Capezza, Nuala Peberdy, Samuel Kalambay, Amadou Mbow, Edward Asante Apeagyei, Reshny Massaka, Onyinye Odokoro, Massimo De Lorenzo, Scot Williams.