Guardian of the Castle is a political thriller written and directed by Lukas Nola
The Croatian drama series Guardian of the Castle (Čuvar dvorca) has been sold to the Swedish national television broadcaster SVT and the British public-service television broadcaster Channel 4, reported Jutarnji on April 27, 2018. Following the likes of Rest in Peace and The Paper, Guardian of the Castle joins the ranks of TV series commissioned by Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) that are sought after on the international market.
The mini series produced for HRT by the company Kinorama will be available on demand in the US as well, as Channel 4 offers the service to the American viewers.
Guardian of the Castle is a political thriller composed of four episodes, with a runtime of 55 minutes each. The series is an adaptation of Robert Perišić’s novel ‘No-signal Area’ and was written and directed by the acclaimed Croatian film director Lukas Nola.
While the Croatian audience didn’t seem to care about the series that much when it was broadcast on HRT, it got prevailingly positive reviews by the critics. The plot is centered around Boris Bišćan, a loyal employee of the State Security Administration (UDBA), who finds himself unable to cope with the crumbling intelligence and the overall political system in the 80s. Nola stated he wasn’t interested in politics as much as in the behaviour of its protagonists when they’re faced with major changes to the state of affairs they’re used to.
Director of HRT Kazimir Bačić said the sale was the result of negotiations with foreign partners that took several months. “I think we have yet again proved we’re capable of creating a product that can compete on the global market”, Bačić stated.
