NTV Russia announced that the international premiere of the most-awaited series of the fall Road to Calvary, timed to the 100 anniversary of the October Revolution, will take place in Cannes during MIPCOM. Dori Media has acquired the distribution rights for the series. Actors that portray the main characters, Yulia Snigir and Anna Chipovskaya, will present the project.

The action of the series takes place in Petersburg in 1914. The city lives ‘as if waiting for a fateful and terrible day’; the society longs for a change. Bulavin sisters are in the center of the story – Katya (Yulia Snigir) and Dasha (Anna Chipovskaya). Both are in love with a decadent poet Alexey Bessonov (Anton Shagin), who changes their mindsets and their usual mode of life. The WWI introduces new meaning and feeling into the carefree existence of the Bulavins. When the war comes to the end, happiness seems to be very close. But the Revolution and the Civil War change the lives of the sisters completely, along with that of their family and the entire country. The ways of the characters cross and part numerous times. The Road to Calvary turns from a metaphor into the real life.

Famous Russian director Konstantin Khudyakov filmed the story that covers Tolstoy’s trilogy about Russian elite written by Elena Rayskaya. Filming took place in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Pyatigorsk, Riga and Arkhangelsk. The series was produced by Russian World Studios with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Russia.

Meanwhile, MIPJunior announced its second 2017 MIPJunior World Premiere TV Screening, the kids’ fantasy series Heroes of Envell, produced by Digital Television Russia and distributed by Signal Media.

This screening will inaugurate the MIPJunior showcase entitled New Creative Territories to Watch. Heroes of Envell (26 x 11’) is created by Anton Lanshakov and Evgeny Golovin for 8-14-year-olds, and starts in school, where four promising pupils (Art, Phil, Vik and Kira) at junior high find a laptop containing a mysterious game. The laptop turns out to be a portal to the game world with real adventures and dangers. This world has been usurped by four-handed evil genius Morgarth, who dreams of getting to Earth and gaining control over the population.