Beta Film, ZDF/Arte, and Antitalent have announced a co-production partnership for the Croatian crime drama series “Red Water.” The six-hour series won the 2025 Council of Europe Series Co-Production Development Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival’s CineLink Industry Days.
The project is based on Jurica Pavičić’s bestselling novel of the same name, which appeared on major year-end book lists including those published by the Financial Times and Sunday Times. The narrative centers on a 17-year-old girl’s unexplained disappearance from a small Croatian coastal town. When police investigations stall and regional geopolitical tensions escalate, the girl’s family takes matters into their own hands, launching a decades-long search that fractures community bonds and reflects broader national struggles.
The series brings together notable creative talent including director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović, whose feature film “Murina” won the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Ljubica Luković, a Canneseries award winner, has written the scripts, while producer Danijel Pek, an Academy Award nominee, leads production efforts. Principal photography is slated for 2027.
This collaboration marks another European crime drama from the established partnership between Beta Film and ZDF/Arte in Central and Eastern Europe, following prior productions including “The Silence” and the Serbian series “Operation Sabre.” Beta Film will manage international sales for the project. According to commissioning editors and executives involved, the series aims to deliver both suspenseful storytelling and historical context regarding Yugoslavia’s dissolution and the Western Balkans’ modern transformation.
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