The first Ukrainian series on Walter Presents, Hide and Seek was nominated for Best Central and Eastern European Series at the unfortunately named “Serial Killer Awards”. The 2019 series is also a cut above the average procedural, capitalising on brutalist urban landscapes and a solid central pairing to transcend the slightly familiar set-up.
In a fading industrial town, a seven-year-old girl goes missing during a round of the eponymous game with her loving but flawed father. Other children then vanish, with each disappearance followed by the release of a short video of the child holding up four numbers. Enter Varta Naumova (Yuliya Abdel Fattakh) and Maksim Shumov (Vyacheslav Dovzhenko), she remote and private, he laid-back and personable, both bearing secrets. If it’s no surprise to discover they make an effective if unorthodox team, the setting is evocatively deployed and the performances steady.
Gabriel Tate
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