Sonia Fleck’s Bomanbridge is backing North Korean undercover documentary, The Mole: Undercover in North Korea, in Asia Pacific (ex Japan) in a deal with Danish director Mads Brügger and Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s DR.

Fleck’s move opens access to a real-life drama that has been called a most severe embarrassment ever to North Korean leader Chairman Kim Jong Un. We spoke to her about her decision to pick up the two-part feature: 
 

What led you to The Mole? 
“Our head of acquisitions, Aegena Tay, came in on a Monday morning telling me in a sort of hushed and rushed manner that this docu feature film, The Mole was unbelievable – a “must see”. After watching it, and doing considerable research on this, I felt that it fits Bomanbridge’s criteria for edgy ground-breaking docufilms: 1) subject access; 2) purpose of storytelling; 3) production method and technique; and 4) audience experience. I spoke with several key flagship producers around the world, who all knew the film and said it was on their top 10. With NHK’s ratings in February 2021, it was clear we need to shepherd the story and bring to the rest of Asia Pacific.”

What about the show most attracted you?
“The film is a 10-year complex strong operation/undercover true spy story. The bizarre mix of real life characters: an out-of-work Danish chef out to expose North Korean dictatorships, a Spanish propagandist who likes to wear military uniform, and a former French legionnaire and convicted felon who puts on the best acting of his life by pretending to be a billionaire with a penchant for intercontinental missiles… well, it’s a story that is well worth the watch.”

What scares you most? 
“The U.N. officials told BBC the footage is ‘highly credible’.”

Have you ever taken on anything similarly explosive before? 
“Not of this nature, no. True-life spy stories probably only come along once every odd blue moons. This said, we are leaning into deep docu feature storytelling as part of our offering, and we are also currently launching a 90-mins feature doc My Childhood My Country: 20 Years in Afghanistan. It’s a visually awesome and deeply moving story about a young boy named Mir, whom our producers followed over 20 years to chart first hand the experience of growing up in Afghanistan since 2001... It’s amazing to see how strong a response we can receive off these cutting edge docu features – an incredibly satisfying experience for distribution. Films like The Mole and My Childhood My Country are rare.”

Did the show’s performance on NHK in Japan influence you at all? 
“NHK broadcast the full feature in February 2021 with over 50% increase in ratings, and an enormous amount of social media chatter, impressions and qualitative feedback. So much so, that NHK will be doing a theatrical release per viewer demand at a later date. Of course, seeing this success on NHK, as well as on BBC for a primetime slot are always great indicators the show will perform brilliantly.”

How would you describe the state of factual programming in Asia at the moment?
“With the Covid-related delays, factual content has been filling gaps on many schedules. We had a great year on factual sales within Asia although, I would still say factual in Asia is at a bit of a crossroads. With the mergers and channels refocusing strategy, we can see on the one hand there is more opportunity coming for co-productions and original development. On the other hand, many platforms seem somewhat unclear on what they want exactly. We are looking for both regionally strong storytelling with hard to access subjects, such as local true crime and other mystery narratives. But again, it isn’t easy to find the right dose of edginess with more conforming comfort zones. It’s exciting to see local factual in Asia beginning to push the boundaries now in the pursuit of more dynamic and exploratory stories.”

What would you most like to see happen in Asia’s factual space? 
“We want to see more co-productions where stories from Asia can entertain the world. As part of our initiative we are entering into development deals with producers to create a healthy pipeline of projects.”

Have you sold it anywhere/where will it air in Asia?
“The Mole has received offers both pan regionally and on local territories; we are working closely with co-producer Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s DR and director Mads Brugger to find the right client relationships to ensure the loudest soundboard for The Mole’s amazing story. Stay tuned!”

Published in ContentAsia's September 2021 magazine