The City and the City

2018

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1
6.4| 0h30m| en| More Info
Released: 06 April 2018 Ended
Producted By: Mammoth Screen
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p061bd5l
Synopsis

When the body of a foreign student is discovered in the streets of the down-at-heel city of Besźel, it’s just another day’s work for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But he uncovers evidence that the murdered girl came from Ul Qoma, a city that shares a dangerous and volatile relationship with Besźel, and this case will challenge everything Borlú holds dear.

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Reviews

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
julencin2000 Give it a try, you won't be disappointed. You'll have to imagine, to think on your own, not to digest fast-food-written-stories. I mean this is not just a procedural, it's so much more that you'll be lost without it.
s3276169 City and the City is an odd blend. There's a little hybridised "checkpoint Charlie" style thing on offer here. A juncture between cities that have a East Germany meets West Germany vibe. This is married up to a gritty police procedural drama that, in turn, has a sci fi physics/metaphysics make over. Whats really weird is this weirdness works well. This tale is just familiar enough to offer up something convincing and grounded your rational sane side can hold onto but also irrationally, insanely different enough to upturn long held conventions.It does this quirky series no harm either to have decent refreshingly intelligent narrative and characterisations, backed by a quality cast. A cast that includes David Morrissey, in the lead role, who I fondly remember from The Walking Dead.9/10 from me.
heidianneberry This sounded like an interesting and original premise and I had high hopes. David Morrissey carries some weight as Inspector Borlu and he is on the whole watchable. Mandeep Dhillon is very pretty but seriously miscast in the role of hard-edged, plain talking sidekick Lizbyet Corwi. Her posh-drama-school-mockney characterisation is woefully unconvincing. The plot offers nothing that has not been seen before in either sci fi or detective fiction. Sadly disappointing.
Tweekums This four-part miniseries is set in the twin cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma; to an outsider they might appear to be one city but residents have trained themselves to completely ignore the other; to notice something in the other city is a crime even if it is right next to you. It is possible to legally pass from one city to the other but once across you must ignore where you came from. Those who cross illegally come to the attention of Breach; the shadowy organisation that polices the boundaries.Tyador Borlú is an Inspector in the Beszel Extreme Crime Squad and his latest case involves an American student found dead in the city; she shoudn't have been there though as she was studying in Ul Qoma. His investigation will lead him to Ul Qoma, to radicals who believe there is actually a third hidden city called Orciny and ultimately to Breach; only then will he discover what happened to the girl and why... also how it was linked to the disappearance of his wife some years before.I haven't read the book and when I saw the trailers for this series I thought it might be a bit too weird; but as I like science fiction and mysteries I thought I'd give it a go. I'm glad I did as I was quickly hooked; to the extent that I watched it in one day. The setting is intriguing and the makers did a fine job of depicting the cities; the 'other' city slightly out of focus often to one side of the screen. Usually in such a story one might expect one city to be dystopian and the other utopian but here both are fairly dystopian, even if Ul Qoma appears to be more advanced. The mystery is solid and the details of the girl's death should keep one guessing till the end. We also get political machinations and a high level of threat much of the time. David Morrissey does a really good job as Borlú and he is ably supported by Mandeep Dhillon, as his new partner Constable Corwi and Maria Schrader, as Ul Qoma's Senior Detective Dhatt, amongst others. Over all I'd say this won't be for everybody but it you want something rather different I'd certainly recommend giving this a go.

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