Short Summary
The documentary supports and illustrates a popular assertion that Vienna, the Austrian capital, has been playing a role of a true world spy capital for the last hundred years and more. The script covers the period from 1910 starting with the (in)famous espionage case of Colonel Alfred Redl, who rose to head the counterintelligence department of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army at the same time being a ‘mole’ spying for the Russians. When uncovered, Redl committed suicide in May 1913. The film ends with the 2010 exchange in the Vienna International airport of the group of ten Russian agents who had operated in the United States to four Western intelligence assets imprisoned in Russia, including Colonel Sergey Skripal, a double agent who had worked for both the Russian military intelligence and the British Secret Service (SIS or MI6). Nine spy episodes are presented in the film.
The Living Daylights, a 1987 James Bond movie featuring the Austrian capital - may be a valuable historical record, but espionage is a serious business and is very much a reality in today's Austria, as our film shows.
What We Need & What You Get
We're currently shooting a documentary (ca 45 min) with the working title SPY CAPITAL and the subtitle "The Vienna Procedure". Espionage aficionados know wha this is. The film is currently production.
Release is planned for April 2021.
Some leading international espionage writers and experts have agreed to take part, acting as consultants and interviewees.
To complete the shooting, we still require €50,000 and are looking for supporters (backers).
Now, as you know what we need, here is what you get.
Naturally, with the existing budget we still manage to do the job and finish the production but with a bit of extra money a lot of invaluable historical footage from national and international film archives could be included which adds extra value to the documentary.
- With the budget in place, the film will be produced in time and the international distribution begins as planned;
- Naturally, with the existing budget we still manage to do the job and finish the production but with a bit of extra money a lot of invaluable historical footage from national and international film archives could be included which adds extra value to the documentary.
- Our special and unique perks limited only for Indiegogo backers, will motivate you to support this film and keep a lovely memory from the original screen play.
Low budget is our advantage
Our low budget production was calculated with € 120,000 for the entire project., which is considerably below standard costs. An average of around € 1,000 - € 4,000 per minute of film is usually required - plus the third party rights, computer graphics, music effects, actors performing stunts and re-enacted scenes, travel, accommodation, and so on.
- Our greatest advantage is the only and unique location - Vienna. Unlike many other great cities in Europe, it preserved its charm over the years with some places looking exactly as they looked 100 years ago. Sometimes, even the shops, restaurants and cafes are the same. In our documentary everything is filmed exactly how and where it happened in the 20s, 50s, 70s, 80s or a day before.
- The documentary is about Vienna but Vienna is the recognised spy capital of the world. As the seat of more than 40 international organisations, about 130 bilateral and numerous other multilateral diplomatic representations with about 3,800 diplomats and more than 6,000 international officials, Vienna is a hub of international diplomacy so spies, agents and spymasters come from every place - Washington, London, Moscow, Berlin, Canberra and Cape Town. Thus, the film, originally produced in English, will be broadcast in many countries with sub-titles or voice over in other languages.
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We managed to raise €70.000 for the film so far. Mostly the money came from the team involved in the project and personal contributions by the producer, director and screen writer.
Risks & Challenges
When you are shooting a spy documentary - not a spy thriller like Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation with Tom Cruise "cruising" over the Vienna State Opera - there are always risks and challenges. A spy handler can recognise himself (or herself) from the footage meeting a contact in the Rosengarten or collecting documents from a dead-letter box. Spies posing as diplomates may occasionally be filmed consuming lunch with sources delivering classified information. A secret agent could be filmed walking on a narrow side street, known here as "gasse" or "weg", while he or she pretends to be another person, in another country, with another partner. This is of course something that we cannot be responsible for and these are risks and challenges that we must foresee and be aware of beforehand. When you are shooting in Vienna, everything may happen.
The Lead
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Dr. Boris Volodarsky
We are lucky to have Dr. Boris Volodarsky as our lead and chief consultant on this film who is also featured in GQ, BBC, itv, Wall Street Journal, The Times, The Guardian, WAIS, History Today, The Spectator and much more.
Dr. Boris Volodarsky has a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science - Fellow of Royal Historical Society.
Since 2010, Volodarsky is a Research Fellow at the LSE's Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies under the directorship of Professor Sir Paul Preston, member of the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar chaired by Professor Christopher Andrew and the World Association of International Studies (WAIS), Stanford University, USA. Volodarsky made his name writing The KGB's Poison Factory: From Lenin to Litvinenko (2009) and several follow-up books and articles on the history of Soviet intelligence. He is a regular contributor to the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Voice of America, ITV, and John Batchelor Show. Volodarsky also acted as the chief consultant for the BBC Panorama documentary How to Poison a Spy (2007). Volodarsky's interview on the Russian undercover agents, the so-called ‘illegals’, for the Foreign Policy was reprinted by many international media and even referred to in WikiLeaks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Volodarsky