{"id":23267,"date":"2025-06-27T10:16:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T14:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/zdf-studios-arte-svt-board-baltic-crusades\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T11:04:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T15:04:46","slug":"zdf-studios-arte-svt-board-baltic-crusades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/zdf-studios-arte-svt-board-baltic-crusades\/","title":{"rendered":"ZDF Studios, ARTE, SVT Board Knights of the North"},"content":{"rendered":"

ZDF Studios has signed on to distribute the drama-led feature documentary Knights of the North\u2014The Baltic Crusades<\/em>, which ARTE and SVT have boarded as lead broadcasters.<\/p>\n

The docudrama tells the fictitious but historically accurate story of a Swedish knight who follows the call to a crusade to conquer the last Pagan kingdoms of Europe, a German warrior monk who writes the only chronicle of the time and a pagan leader of a Semigallian tribe determined to defend her people. It is supported by the latest academic research and archaeological discoveries.<\/p>\n

Malta\u2019s Urban Canyons is the majority co-producer, joined by Latvia\u2019s Tritone Studio and Estonia\u2019s Ulm Production. Each Baltic co-producer is raising national funds and managing the drama filming in Latvia and Estonia.<\/p>\n

There are further presales to Australia\u2019s SBS, Italy\u2019s Rai, Switzerland\u2019s SRF, the Czech Republic\u2019s \u010cesk\u00e1 televise, Malta\u2019s PBS, Estonia\u2019s ERR, the Baltic states\u2019 Go3 and Lativa\u2019s TV24.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the success of Viking Warrior Women<\/em>, I am looking forward to working with Urban Canyons again as co-producer for Knights of the North<\/em>, which is a fascinating fact-based story that looks at the 250 year-long Northern Crusades that shaped the world of the Baltics and Medieval Europe,\u201d said Mikael \u00d6sterby, head of factual programming at SVT. \u201cWe are looking forward to the high-end cinematic reenactment that Urban Canyons is known for, while managing to deliver historically accurate programming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fascinating to learn about the completely unknown Crusades of the North and their large-scale involvement of German and Scandinavian knights who called themselves \u2018God\u2019s Pilgrims\u2019 and fought to secure the so called \u2018lands of the holy Virgin Maria,\u2019 but in fact entered a brutal and messy war of attrition to convert and rule over Europe\u2019s last pagan people,\u201d commented Laurent Filliung, commissioner at ARTE.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnights of the North<\/em> is a compelling human drama played out in the epic landscapes and authentic historic locations of northeastern Europe, having a universal appeal to global audiences,\u201d added Nikolas H\u00fclbusch, Director Unscripted at ZEF Studios. \u201cGripping and unknown stories from the Medieval Ages, a period in time that still lies at the very heart of European culture and civilization, always do well in our catalog.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian Peiter, producer at Urban Canyons, said, \u201cIn these difficult times, especially with the lack of American and Asian co-pro partners, high-end specialist factual can only survive in collaboration with European state broadcasters and by sharing workflow and rights with fellow European producers who can bring additional state and broadcaster funding from their territory. This Malta\/Latvia\/Estonia co-production is a first between three so-called low-capacity countries. Interestingly, the national history of each partner country is deeply entangled with the Christian military orders of the Medieval Crusades.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the Mediterranean Crusades to the Holy Land are the stuff of legend, there was a much lesser known and far more intensive Crusade beyond the vast unexplored lands of the Eastern frontiers of Medieval Europe,\u201d added Raitis Abele, co-producer at Tritone Studio. \u201cSince the war in Ukraine, the world is looking at what is going on in the East of Europe again, with its long history of conflict and constant threat of foreign invasion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ZDF Studios has signed on to distribute the drama-led feature documentary Knights of the North\u2014The Baltic Crusades, which ARTE and SVT have boarded as lead broadcasters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":23268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[140,11178,11179,10890,8990,11180,11181,527,11182,11183,1164,6212],"class_list":["post-23267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-arte","tag-knights-of-the-north-the-baltic-crusades","tag-laurent-filliung","tag-mikael-osterby","tag-nikolas-hulbusch","tag-raitis-abele","tag-sebastian-peiter","tag-svt","tag-tritone-studio","tag-ulm-production","tag-urban-canyons","tag-zdf-studios","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nZDF Studios, ARTE, SVT Board Knights of the North - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/zdf-studios-arte-svt-board-baltic-crusades\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ZDF Studios, ARTE, SVT Board Knights of the North - TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ZDF Studios has signed on to distribute the drama-led feature documentary Knights of the North\u2014The Baltic Crusades, which ARTE and SVT have boarded as lead broadcasters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/zdf-studios-arte-svt-board-baltic-crusades\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVREAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-27T14:16:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-27T15:04:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2025\/06\/2025-06-27-ZDFStudiosSVTARTE-KnightsoftheNorthTheBalticCrusades-0625.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/zdf-studios-arte-svt-board-baltic-crusades\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/zdf-studios-arte-svt-board-baltic-crusades\/\",\"name\":\"ZDF Studios, ARTE, SVT Board Knights of the North - TVREAL\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-27T14:16:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-27T15:04:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/zdf-studios-arte-svt-board-baltic-crusades\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/zdf-studios-arte-svt-board-baltic-crusades\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/zdf-studios-arte-svt-board-baltic-crusades\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ZDF Studios, ARTE, SVT Board Knights of the North\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/\",\"name\":\"TVREAL\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\",\"name\":\"Jamie Stalcup\",\"description\":\"Jamie Stalcup is the executive editor of World Screen. 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