The stark beauty of the Kazakh steppes is a long way from the dangers of a space mission high above Earth – and yet in new series Infiniti, the two are soon powerfully linked by a murder mystery that goes far beyond the usual ‘whodunnit’.
In Kazakhstan, policeman Isaak Turgun is investigating a decapitated body (which isn’t the only odd thing about it); in space, a complex docking operation at the International Space Station goes terribly wrong; in a military hospital in Paris, French astronaut Anna Zarathi – who was meant to be on the mission to the ISS, but was replaced by her lover, American Anthony Kurz – awakes to news of the disaster. Soon, Zarathi is in Kazakhstan, as she and Turgun chase answers.
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For director Thierry Poiraud, the interwoven storylines allowed him to combine two of his favourite genres in a “cosmic crime story”.
“I see Infiniti as an opportunity to work with my two favourite genres, sci-fi and crime, but putting the two together in a new kind of story. The series begins like a classic murder mystery with a pair of investigators trying to uncover a dark plot – the kind of well-oiled machine that viewers are familiar with, and can get comfortably involved in, before we lead them into a fantasy story,” says Poiraud, whose other works include the award-winning crime series Black Spot.
“The two storylines – one set in the steppe, the other in the cosmodrome [the mission control centre] and in space – intertwine and visually overlap throughout the series. This narrative approach allows me to create a new visual universe combining and contrasting the vast open spaces and mineral beauty of the Kazakh steppe and the confined, sterilised interiors of ultra-modern spaceships.”
Poiraud says he was aiming to add “a new chapter to the tried and tested crime-story genre: a ‘cosmic crime story’ with adventure, political intrigue, mystery and, I hope, a touch of poetry.”
Anna Zarathi (Céline Sallette) searches for answers. Source: Viktoria Abramova – Empreinte Digitale / Federation Entertainment Belgique / Canal+
He’s certainly succeeded: Infiniti is a noir-meets-sci fi mystery, with political complications adding to the challenges faced by Zarathi (French actress Céline Sallette) and Turgun (Kazakh actor Daniyar Alshinov, who actually studied aerospace engineering before his screen career developed). There’s Emil Durkhov (Vlad Ivanov), the head of ISS operations at the cosmodrome, who’s focused on controlling the diplomatic tug-of-war that follows the docking disaster, but may have other motives at play, given his own space program history; and Lydia Joukovskaia (Karina Arutyunyan) the Russian Federation’s delegate at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Turgun’s battling corruption and Anna’s having hallucinations she can’t admit to. With Poiraud and producers Raphaël Rocher and Eric Laroche at the helm, and written by Stéphane Pannetier and Julien Vanlerenberghe, this is clever, character-driven sci-fi.
"Beyond notions of genre, the true driving force behind the characters’ actions is love: the love that drives a small-town Kazakh cop to seek the truth about his son’s death; the love that sends a young French woman on a dangerous journey … The grit and determination of the unlikely detective duo, stimulated by their powerful emotions, lead them to the limits of what is possible,” Poiraud says.
Daniyar Alshinov as Isaak Turgun. Source: Viktoria Abramova – Empreinte Digitale / Federation Entertainment Belgique / Canal+
Much of the filming was done In Ukraine and Kazakhstan, with the faded glory of the Baikonur Cosmodome and the harsh Kazakh steppes providing a stark contrast to the hi-tech action in space. The cosmodrome, recreated near Kiev for the film, is in real life a Russian-leased enclave within Kazakhstan - a situation that forms a key part of the Infiniti storyline.
The space scenes presented challenges. Infiniti had to be realistic, Poiraud says. “By mixing archives and 3D reconstructions, we can create scenes that are as realistic as the images we get from space. We want to take the ‘fiction’ out of science fiction. This is the challenge we’ve set ourselves with Infiniti: to do away with the boundaries of the sci-fi genre and of realism, in both the writing and the directing.”
Behind the scenes: filming ‘in space’. Source: Empreinte Digitale / Federation Entertainment Belgique / Canal+
Poiraud says he aimed to make “the inconceivable suddenly become plausible”. As Zarathi and Turgun chase answers, Infiniti definitely sets up the inconceivable – can one man be in two places, alive and dead, at the same time? Thankfully, as Pannetier has , “everything has an explanation” – eventually. Poiraud has delivered his ‘inconceivable plausibility’ in superb fashion, creating a series like no other. Strap in. Space, and a superb mystery, await.
