The second and final day of MEDIA PLAY Sofia delivered another dynamic series of sessions spotlighting co-production strategies, regional successes, and bold new fiction projects. One of the presented projects was crime thriller South Stream – a Serbian-Bulgarian production by Concept Studio, created by Marko Popovic. As Hristo Hadzhitanev, the program director of the Festival noted during the presentation of the project, South Stream immediately attracted the support of United Group and United Media during its development stages and this week it was officially selected to take part in the Sarajevo Film Festival.

Hadzhitanev also revealed that “the person who is going to co-produce the series, providing the investigation work for the real events, and guaranteeing its exposure to the wider global audience, is our own Bulgarian hero of international open-source journalism, Christo Grozev. The Oscar winner, now targeted by Putin's assassins, will join forces with our Serbian creators and with Concept Studio in order to deliver what I would love to be one of the most remarkable political thrillers of our time. Christo Grozev's support and participation in the development and the production of South Stream will immediately make this series quite attractive on the international market.”

CEETV reminds that Grozev is a Bulgarian investigative journalist and author. He is the head of investigations with The Insider and former lead Russia investigator with Bellingcat. Grozev was featured heavily in the 2022 documentary Navalny, which covered the title figure's poisoning. Navalny won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary at the 76th British Academy Film Awards, although Grozev's invitation to the awards ceremony was rescinded days before it was due to take place, following an assessment that he was a "security risk." The film's creators paid tribute to Grozev upon collecting the award. The film went on to win the Best Documentary Award at the 95th Academy Awards, which Grozev appeared on stage to accept the award alongside Director Daniel Roher and Yulia Navalnaya. On 26 December 2022 the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia announced that Grozev was on its "wanted" list without disclosing the reason. On 21 April 2023 Moscow ordered his arrest in absentia. According to British investigators, Grozev was shadowed by a group of agents on behalf of Russia in several countries, including Austria, Montenegro and Spain.

South Stream is the name of the controversial gas pipeline, which was built under the pressure of Putin in order to circumvent Ukraine, providing an alternative route for the Russian gas, and ultimately enabling Russia to invade Ukraine and to start the war. South Stream, in countries like Serbia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Greece, has actually become a remarkable symbol of corruption, because at almost every stage of the construction of the gas pipeline, we find really remarkable stories, corruption, extortion, illicit pressure, abuse, and even several murders.

You can expect more details about South Stream and all the other projects presented at MEDIA PLAY next week, only on CEETV.