ZDF Studios has signed on to distribute the drama-led feature documentary Knights of the North—The Baltic Crusades, which ARTE and SVT have boarded as lead broadcasters.

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.

Malta’s Urban Canyons is the majority co-producer, joined by Latvia’s Tritone Studio and Estonia’s Ulm Production. Each Baltic co-producer is raising national funds and managing the drama filming in Latvia and Estonia.

There are further presales to Australia’s SBS, Italy’s Rai, Switzerland’s SRF, the Czech Republic’s Česká Televize, Malta’s PBS, Estonia’s ERR, the Baltic states’ Go3 and Lativa’s TV24.

“After the success of Viking Warrior Women, I am looking forward to working with Urban Canyons again as co-producer for Knights of the North, 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,” said Mikael Österby, head of factual programming at SVT. “We are looking forward to the high-end cinematic reenactment that Urban Canyons is known for, while managing to deliver historically accurate programming.”

“It 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 ‘God’s Pilgrims’ and fought to secure the so called ‘lands of the holy Virgin Maria,’ but in fact entered a brutal and messy war of attrition to convert and rule over Europe’s last pagan people,” commented Laurent Filliung, commissioner at ARTE.

“Knights of the North 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,” added Nikolas Hülbusch, Director Unscripted at ZEF Studios. “Gripping 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.”
Sebastian Peiter, producer at Urban Canyons, said, “In 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.”

“While 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,” added Raitis Abele, co-producer at Tritone Studio. “Since 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.”