The City and the City

2018

Seasons & Episodes

  • 1
6.4| 0h30m| en| More Info
Released: 06 April 2018 Ended
Producted By: Mammoth Screen
Country:
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

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded
Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.
Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
tomcowen-97198 In Ralph Ellison's novel The Invisible Man he convincingly describes a society where he is not seen. This happens today all over. Aborigines are invisible to white Australians. Muslims are invisible to Christians and on it goes. The City just takes reality a little further and has a state imposed invisible "other class". If you don't follow the plot first time (you are not alone) I recommend a second look and you will pick up the subtle detail in a better appreciation of the fabric being woven here.
reality42 The story itself is somewhat interesting, but its hard to "suspend disbelief" when the implication is that the people in these cities are idiots. In the real world if there were what seems to look like 1 city to the outside, split into 2 cities in separate countries that share a border and don't wish open immigration, it would be be far cheaper and more convenient for citizens to build a wall. Its doubtful there is any credible scenario that could explain how the claimed situation evolved in the first place if you assume these are humans rather than aliens who don't share the same human nature we do. I watched this to see if some interesting twist would make their approach more credible, but it never arose.btw, this comment doesn't indicate anything about politics in the real world. I favor as much open immigration as possible, and a wall dividing a dense city is vastly different than an extremely long one along a sparsely populated border between countries.
Prismark10 The City and the City is an interesting, intriguing, thought provoking fantasy/sci-fi detective thriller. It is shot in a grimy way with a budget that is not quite large enough to reach its ambitions but almost gets there by will power. If you look hard enough you can see some parts of Liverpool.I did find the series rather confusing but during its transmission I visited Berlin and this gave me another dimension to understand the series.David Morrissey plays a hard boiled detective Tyador Borlú , an Inspector in the Beszel Extreme Crime Squad. Beszel is a dinghy city with battered tower blocks, poor, with immigrants and a government that wants to drive the foreigners out. It is a Dystopian society not too far from East Germany.Borlú is investigating the death of a an American female found dead in Beszel. However she was studying in Ul Qoma so it was a case of what was she doing here? Ul Qoma is a little bit upmarket, with glass towers, affluence and a little bit of style and intellectual sophistication. Yet it is also anti immigrant and deep down it is also a Dystopian society, maybe West Berlin of the 1970s.Both cities exist in the same space, residents from both cities ignore each other and have been trained to unsee and ignore the other city. If you cross the cities illegally it is a breach and punishable unless you go through the official crossing points. A bit like Checkpoint Charlie.As we follow Borlú's investigation with his new potty mouthed partner, we see flashbacks of his wife who disappeared some years earlier. Did she go to Ul Qoma and not return? Borlú crosses over to Ul Qoma and investigates some radicals who believe that there is a mythical third city called Orciny.Morrissey is wonderful, he makes the series come alive. The City and the City is one of the best dramas of 2018.
halfaworldaway86 Enjoyed all four episodes and the pace was typical of a crime drama. The idea of the 2 cities co-existing in the same place but all citizens are 'brainwashed' not to acknowledge the other cities existence in day to day creates a huge scope to explore. The fear of 'Breach' is only implied so you don't get a real sense why all/most the citizens obey the status quo. I love 1984 so I think I subconsciously brought that and the fear of Big Brother into this whilst watching.

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