TV-3 channel (part of Gazprom-Media Holding) and Great Britain’s largest independent TV content distributor Cineflix Rights signed an agreement for the transfer of exclusive international rights to the movie series Obychnaya Zhenshina (An Ordinary Woman), directed by Boris Khlebnikov and featuring Anna Mikhalkova in the leading role. The project will be presented to potential foreign partners in Cannes (France) on October 15 as part of MIPCOM, the largest international market for audiovisual content.
Obychnaya Zhenshina is the first project from Russia that was accepted into the main contest pool of the prestigious international series festival, Series Mania. In May 2018 in Lille (France), the jury awarded Anna Mikhalkova the prize for the best female role. The movie series Obychnaya Zhenshina is also included in the competition program of the 14th International Film Festival in Zurich (Switzerland), which will take place from September 27 to October 7.
The series’ script was written in the drama genre with detective and comic elements. The plot is based on the story of a 39-year-old Muscovite Marina, who, in the time she is free from work and family obligations, secretly runs a brothel. Behind this extravagant plot, there is a dramatic story of a strong woman who has taken responsibility for the well-being of her family. The main roles are played by Anna Mikhalkova, Tatyana Dogileva, Alexandra Bortich, Aglaya Tarasova, Evgeny Grishkovets and other famous Russian artists.
“The storylines of the series Weeds, Breaking Bad, and Shameless can be detected in the script of Obychnaya Zhenshina, only transferred to modern Russian reality. This is the story of a strong woman in a world of weak men - a popular topic that is very relevant today. At the international level, the face of the Russian television market has not yet been formed. We have all heard about English detectives and Scandinavian noir, but what is Russian TV content? We would like our work to answer this question so that the new Russian film series become synonymous with a high-quality breakthrough,” said Valery Fyodorovich, TV-3 general manager and producer of the series.