Orange Smarty closes global deals for Russia From Above
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 04 February 2019

Independent UK multi-platform factual content distribution company Orange Smarty has revealed a string of sales for its natural-history series Russia From Above.

Produced by German documentary-makers colourFIELD with ZDF, ARTE and Gazprom Media, the 5 x 43’/1 x 90’ series offers a bird’s eye view of the largest country on Earth. Costing more than €3 million to produce, takes viewers on an aerial trip around the vast and varied Russian Federation, which is twice the size of the US and 50 times bigger than the EU’s largest country, Germany. From the glaciers of the Caucasus to the deserts of Kalmykia; from the mysterious Manpupuner rock formations to never-before-filmed sea-lion colonies — the filmmakers say that their unprecedented access to Russia’s untouched, unseen wildernesses and wildlife make this a landmark documentary.

The series has now been licensed in multiple territories by broadcasters, including UKTV (for its Eden channel), Sky New Zealand, Ananey Israel, TVB Hong Kong, NC+ in Poland (Planete+ ), Ceska Televize Czech Republic, RTV Slovenia and PTS Taiwan. It has already set new ratings records for both its commissioning broadcasters. On ZDF, the series attracted the largest audience ever for the German public broadcaster’s 35-year-old Terra X strand. On ARTE, the documentary quadrupled the Franco-German broadcaster’s ratings for its slot average.

“Russia From Above opens a window on an extraordinary country that, even in today’s over-explored, over-exposed world, remains a mystery to most of us,” said Karen Young, founder and managing director of Orange Smarty.

“Everybody who’s seen the series has been awestruck by the footage, not only in terms of Russia’s natural beauty but by the impeccable production standards — the filmmakers spent nine months filming from helicopters with the best aerial cameras in the world. colourFIELD’s mission is to ‘make the invisible visible’ — it has more than lived up to that promise with this breath-taking project.”