Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Unwritten+

Mounia Aram didn't arrive in the animation industry through a straight door. Born in Casablanca and raised outside Paris, she came through a betrayal, a depression, a phone call to her sister in San Francisco — and a brother-in-law who happened to work in Japanese animation.

That's fate, she says. And she means it.

Today Mounia Aram is one of the leading voices in African animation — founder of the Mounia Aram Company, Africa Council Chair at the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, and a passionate advocate for diversity in kids content globally.

But none of that was planned. She spent years searching for her voice — through improv theatre, fashion shows, and a university degree in Arabic languages that led nowhere obvious. What she built from all of it is anything but obvious: a company, a global network, a mission, and now a memoir.

In this episode, we talk about:

— what anime taught her about the power of culture as a brand

— why AI is an opportunity, not a threat, for emerging animation studios in Africa

— the women who didn't support her — and the male allies who did

— the family fight that turned out to be the most liberating thing that ever happened to her

— and what it means to keep believing in yourself when the people closest to you don't

Mounia's memoir Route Détournée is out now in French — with an English edition on the way.

One of the biggest myths in television is that you can take a successful show from one country and simply reproduce it somewhere else.

In reality, formats may travel — but they almost never work unchanged.

They have to be rebuilt — culturally, creatively, sometimes even structurally.

That’s something my guest Marc Lorber has spent decades doing, producing television across more than 20 countries.

From stand-up comedy clubs in New York…
to working with David Lynch…
to building productions across Europe, the Middle East and beyond.

In this episode of Unwritten+, Marc shares the stories behind a career spent translating stories across cultures — across scripted series, unscripted formats and international co-productions.

A few things we talk about:

• Why casting is often the make-or-break moment in unscripted television
• What really determines whether a format can travel internationally
• Why a producer’s job is often simply to find the way to “yes”

And a question that stayed with me after our conversation:

• At what point does a format stop being an adaptation — and become its own show?

It’s a longer episode than usual.

But when someone has spent decades producing television in more than twenty countries, the stories are simply too good to rush...

Simone Baumann was still a teenager when she left Eastern Germany to study philosophy in the Soviet Union.

She arrived in Rostov-on-Don in the early 80s to empty supermarket shelves, ration coupons for butter, water running only twice a day and a city she wasn’t allowed to leave.

No internet. No quick call home. No exit strategy.

But somewhere between translating philosophy texts with a dictionary at night and listening to professors debate ideas that couldn’t officially be published, she learned something that stayed with her: how to think in context. How to read a system before reacting to it. And how to listen differently.

Today, she leads German Films, representing contemporary German cinema internationally.

When you hear her speak, you realize that international careers aren’t built on glamour. They’re built on moments that stretch you. On cultural friction. And on learning to observe before you act.

*And for the non-Germans here: Leberkäse (literally “liver cheese”) is a Bavarian classic that contains neither liver nor cheese — just warm, finely ground meat baked into a loaf, sliced thick, and best eaten with sweet mustard in a bread roll.

The new Unwritten+ episode is with Jarmo Lampela, director, teacher, and Head of Drama at Finland’s public broadcaster.

Jarmo talks about growing up between places, spending his childhood moving, observing, adapting. About learning early how communities work. About noticing class, distance, and belonging - long before having language for it.

We talk about:
– directing without pretending to have all the answers
– teaching by starting with a simple question: why are we here?
– living between very different cultures and absorbing ways of life rather than passing through them
– and how being an observer can quietly shape how you work with people

Along the way, you also get a glimpse into Finland, not as a brand or a myth, but as a lived place, and into a certain kind of quiet endurance that’s hard to translate, but easy to recognise once you hear it.

If you work across cultures or simply with other humans, there’s a lot to learn here.

Not in the form of instructions, but through the way Jarmo approaches people, responsibility, and work.

Unwritten+ is back — and we’re starting the year with something new:
our first-ever video episode. I’m excited. And yes, a little bit terrified. Which usually tells me it’s the right move…

🎙️ Pedro Lopes: Building Stories Across Time, Formats, and Borders
On history, conflict, and why stories sometimes refuse to stay on screen

Our guest is Pedro Lopes, Director of Content at SPI in Portugal — an International Emmy–winning writer, academic, and storyteller who has spent years building narratives at scale: telenovelas, high-end series, international co-productions… and now, micro dramas.

We talk about:

– what a background in history gives you as a writer
– why “drama is conflict” still matters, no matter the format

– why international co-production is basically a marriage without dating
- why deadlines are the most honest collaborators

– how being a father sharpened his sense of responsibility as a storyteller
– and what happens when a story doesn’t quite stay on screen

Pedro is expanding into micro dramas — the short, vertical format that started in China, spread across Asia and Latin America, and is now one of the most talked-about shifts in our industry. Not as a gimmick, but with the same care for craft, responsibility, and audience.

It’s thoughtful, grounded, occasionally very funny — and a strong way to open the new season.

Season two starts here.

In the new episode of Unwritten+, I speak with Deborah Bayer Marlow — a producer whose entire life has been shaped by instinct, reinvention and the kind of courage you only discover when the ground under your feet disappears.

Deborah’s story begins in 1988 — a year she calls “a rupture.”
At 18, in the chaos of a family falling apart, she grabbed a backpack, $1,500 and followed the Grateful Dead across America. A wild, rebellious escape that — without her knowing — set her on a collision course with cinema.

From landing as a green PA on Natural Born Killers, to the wild adrenaline of 90s advertising, to working with Gus Van Sant, and then uprooting her Hollywood life for Denmark after 9/11 — her journey is a masterclass in trusting timing, saying yes, and building a career across borders.

We talk about:

• Launching Marlow Film and marrying American ambition with Danish precision
• Creative trust — and holding vision when budget and reality collide
• The mystical timing behind The Girl with the Needle, the film that stunned Cannes and went on to Golden Globe & Oscar nominations
• Why emotion — not algorithms — is her compass
• Choosing people over projects, and knowing exactly when a leap is worth it

Deborah reminds us that dark stories can reveal extraordinary light — and that the real magic happens when instinct, craft and collaboration meet.

This episode is full of heart, honesty and wisdom from a woman who has rebuilt her life more than once — and done it with grace, grit and a deep belief in the power of story.

What I love most about my conversations on UNWRITTEN+ is when they stop being about titles and job descriptions — and become about the life underneath.
My new episode with Daniela Tully is exactly that.

Daniela is a novelist, screenwriter, and creative producer whose journey has unfolded across five countries and three continents — and every place has reshaped the way she writes, works, and sees the world. From co-producing Hollywood films like Contagion and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in Abu Dhabi to writing her debut novel Hotel on Shadow Lake (inspired by a WWII letter her grandmother received 46 years late), her path is anything but linear.

We talk about:
• What “home” means when you have several
• How expat life changes your sense of identity — and complicates “belonging”
• Why her students in Dubai read stories without the Western lens
• How Bedouin storytelling influenced her writing
• And yes — the slap on a Mexican film set that echoed across a canyon

It’s a layered, cross-border, deeply human and enormously fun conversation — exactly what Unwritten+ was made for.

Some stories don’t just stay with you — they change you.
This conversation is one of them.

Katya grew up in Mariupol, a city now synonymous with destruction and unimaginable loss.
Before the war, she had already built an extraordinary producing career across CEE, the Nordics, the UK and beyond — a life that changed completely from one day to the next in February 2022.

And two days before the full-scale invasion, she made a decision that still moves me deeply:

She flew back home. Not because it was safe — but because that’s where her family and friends were.
She had a sense of what might be coming, and she chose to be with them.
That kind of clarity… that kind of heart… it stayed with me.

In our conversation, she speaks with a raw honesty that humbled me: about waking up to war, the urgent effort to get her mother out of Mariupol, and the moment she realised her childhood home — and every physical memory of her life there — had been erased.

And in the middle of that devastation, she created Those Who Stayed — a wartime anthology held together by heartbreak, humour and humanity.
A project that exists because the Nordic public broadcasters acted fast, with a very special shoutout to YLE, national broadcaster in Finland, who picked up the phone, rallied their peers and said: “We have to do this.”
And because my former colleagues at Red Arrow (now Seven.One Studios International) believed in the project early and helped make the financing possible.

We talk about producing as an act of resistance. About burnout. About rebuilding her life in Brighton — behind a bar, in a yoga studio, reconnecting with life in its simplest, truest form.

And we talk about co-productions — not as budget puzzles, but as people. About protecting the emotional core of a story.
About her quiet strength and the wisdom she has earned the hard way.

There’s also the absurd, tender, unforgettable story of the Kyiv underground station where she spent the first days of the war — a dramedy she hopes to make one day. I hope she does too.

But the moment that will stay with me most came at the very end.
I asked her for one word to describe the year ahead.

She didn’t hesitate.

“Optimistic.”

Not out of naïveté. But out of strength. Out of choice.
Out of the belief that light deserves space too.

Please let her story be heard.
Listen — and if it moves you, help it reach others.

Unwritten+ has become deeply meaningful because of conversations like this.
I’m grateful for every guest who trusts me with their truths, their fears, their laughter and their lives.
They shape how I see the world — and I don’t take that lightly.

Born in Iran after the Islamic Revolution. A childhood marked by the Iran–Iraq war. Growing up in a dictatorship where silence was survival.

Ali May’s journey took him from Iran to London, where he studied Creative Writing, and from there to Bloomberg, Euronews, and the BBC — before turning to stories for the screen and stage. His projects now cross borders — from France to Germany, Denmark to Finland, and beyond — but always return to the same truth: what power does to people, and how even in the darkest places, there can be cracks of light.

✨ In this episode, Ali shares:
– What it meant to grow up as a child in wartime — and how stories became a way to understand the world.
– How Orwell’s 1984 shaped his decision to leave Iran.
– The hidden grief of exile — and the weight of not being able to return home.
– Why fiction became the place where he could finally voice his opinions.
– And yes, even a story about competing with his mother over who makes the best celery stew with lamb.

Because in the end, it’s the small rituals of family and food that keep us connected, even across borders.

This is a conversation about courage, exile — and why telling stories freely is never something to take for granted.

Sylvia Yu Friedman | A Life of Fearlessness ✨

Born in South Korea, raised in Vancouver, shaped in Beijing, and now rooted in Hong Kong — Sylvia Yu Friedman has lived many lives in one.

As a journalist, documentary filmmaker, author of three powerful books (A Long Road to Justice, Silenced No More, and Fearless), and an advocate for survivors of modern slavery, she has walked into places most of us would run from. She’s faced danger, toxic workplaces, personal loss, and trauma — and still chooses joy, hope, and reconciliation.

In our conversation, we talk about:
🌿 Forgiveness as true freedom
🔥 The courage it takes to tell the untold — from war crimes to modern slavery
💔 Healing after trauma and walking through cancer with her husband
🌏 Resilience learned across continents — Korea, Canada, Beijing, Hong Kong
💡 Why love and hope never die, and why she believes the next generation will go further than we ever could

What inspired me most: Sylvia doesn’t just survive darkness. She transforms it — into stories, into lessons, into light for others.

🎙️ Episode 10 of Unwritten+ — our first-ever LIVE recording in a SERIESLY BERLIN SPECIAL is now available!

From Enugu to the Olympic Dream. Unwritten+ Live with Kaelo Iyizoba at Seriesly Berlin

Yesterday at the beautiful Fotografiska Berlin with an amazing view over Berlin in Bar Clara, during the fantastic second edition of Seriesly Berlin, I sat down with Kaelo Iyizoba—a Nigerian American filmmaker whose journey is pure vision and courage.

Born in NYC, raised in Enugu, Nigeria, Kaelo first trained as a pharmacist—then made the leap to study filmmaking at Columbia University Film School. Since then: award winning shorts like “River of Justice” and “Boy Meets Girl”, selections to the Sundance Cultural Impact Residency and TIFF Directors’ Lab, and now “Birthright,” his epic new series which he pitched at the festival’s Writers’ Vision Pitch.

What stayed with me:

• How a boy in Enugu once wrote little novels by hand and sold them with his cousins — and how that spark still fuels his storytelling today.
• The bravery it takes to say, “pharmacy wasn’t my story — film is,” and to start over on an entirely new path.
• The loneliness of landing in New York just as Covid shut the world down — and the resilience it took to keep going, to build community anyway.
• The way he uses cinema to trade in something rare and necessary: empathy.
• The spark of Prince of Egypt — and the dream of one day directing an Olympic Opening Ceremony.

Huge thank you to Seriesly Berlin, Dennis Ruh, Sabine Schmidt and Fotografiska Berlin for hosting our Unwritten+ debut in front of a live audience. What a view. What a room. What a guest.

One more thing: Every follow, every like, every comment helps us grow this community so we can keep telling the human side of building a career across cultures and borders. Thank you for your support!

Fourteen books devoured on a single road trip. A teenage obsession with musicals and VHS horror films. An intern who borrowed money just to take her dream job at Fortissimo Films — and later helped steer Lumière from DVDs to Netflix deals.

That same drive now powers Marike as Head of International Financing & Co-Productions at Nordisk Film — where she’s building bold partnerships across Europe while mentoring, moderating, and shaping the next generation of storytellers.

In our conversation we speak about:
✨ moving countries for love
✨ why business in Belgium starts with three lunches
✨ bath- and barroom pitches that actually close co-productions
✨ taking scary but calculated risks
✨ and why connection — not algorithms — is the real through-line of her career.

And we made a little pact: for my 100th episode (still far, far away — and for which I’ll need the continued support of this community), Marike will flip the mic and interview me as guest host.

How do you go from a cinema seat in a Dutch small town, moved to tears by a Brazilian film - to selling stories across continents, backing an €11M vampire series, and now showrunning a bold, romantic costume drama?

That’s the arc of Fleur Winters—producer of Dutch Gouden Kalf WinnerThe Crash, founder of Big Blue, and the creative force behind the upcoming Grand Hotel by the Sea.
A series that blends entertainment with substance—and throws a well-aimed rock into the still water of convention.

In this episode of Unwritten+, Fleur joins me to talk about:
🎬 What showrunning really means—and why clear leadership empowers creativity
🌊 How surfing (and saying no) helps her reset
🛠️ Building a slate that puts audience first—without chasing the algorithm
🪨 Why she believes stories should entertain and shake something loose
✨ The project she waited seven years to make

This one’s a masterclass in creative stamina, smart risk-taking, and trusting the story only you can tell.

You have 5 minutes to convince a room full of strangers your story matters.
What do you say? If you’re lucky, you’ll have Agathe Berman in your corner.

Known as The Pitchologist, she’s the go-to coach for filmmakers, showrunners, and producers across Europe who need their ideas to land — in a room, on a stage, or across a screen.

But what Agathe really teaches isn’t just how to pitch. It’s how to speak with clarity, courage, and presence.

And what makes her unforgettable?
Not just her method. Her.

In this episode, Agathe brings it all:

🪞 How her family’s legacy of silence and survival shaped her voice
🎤 The pitch that went spectacularly wrong — in front of Frederick Wiseman
🧿 Her pre-show rituals (pink glasses, scarves, and a lucky coin hidden in her bra)
🎭 A childhood spent recording dinner-table conversations, classifying guests as “the philosophers”… or just plain boring
🎶 And yes — she sings.

Magnetic. A bit unfiltered (in the best way). Deeply wise, and unexpectedly hilarious.

You may not know her name yet. But after this? You won’t forget it.

Some producers start with a screenplay. Michael Polle started with popcorn. 🍿

What began behind the concession stand of a one-screen cinema turned into one of the most respected careers in European drama—Babylon Berlin, Furia, Other People’s Money (aka Cum-Ex)… you’ve seen his work.

Now, in his first interview since launching his new company Polle Hofmann, Michael joins Unwritten+ to talk about:

🛠 Why producing is like being a football manager (and no, he’s not yelling from the sidelines)
🤝 How to keep a vision alive with two broadcasters and five opinions at the table
💸 Turning the biggest tax scandal in Europe into something emotionally gripping
🧠 The role of AI in research, second units, and maybe your next edit suite
💬 The thing he had to unlearn after 20 years in the game
☕ And why coffee before email is non-negotiable

✨ A conversation about creative stamina, radical honesty, and building something new—brick by brick, scene by scene.

Some careers begin with a degree. Paolo Ciccarelli’s began with a scam. (Yes, really.)

What was meant to be a short trip to London turned into a five-year detour — retail jobs, canceled plans, and a crash course in international storytelling. Now, he's one of the most trusted voices in European drama: an International Scripted Advisor for Film & TV and Head of Drama at MIA - International Audiovisual Market in Rome.

🎙️ In this deeply human (and sometimes hilarious) conversation, Paolo shares:

• What Fleabag taught him about trusting new voices

• Why saying no is often the hardest part of his job

• His soft spot for queer and underrepresented stories

• The wildest case of mistaken identity on a red carpet

• And the simple superpower that’s fueled his entire career

✨ A story about listening, letting go, and learning to trust the chaos.
This one is for anyone who’s ever made a U-turn — and found themselves in exactly the right place.

In this new episode of Unwritten+ Seriencamp Conference Special, Irina Ignatiew speaks with Samya Hafsaoui—a Dutch-Moroccan filmmaker, writer, cultural critic, and the kind of multi-hyphenate who doesn’t wait for permission—she builds her own stage.

Her debut feature is a smart, funny, deeply personal story about ADHD, fan culture, and the pressure to finish what you start—even when your brain has other plans. She’s building it from scratch: writing the screenplay, a companion novel, and a stage play. Why? Because this story matters—especially for young women of color who rarely see themselves, or their struggles, on screen.

She’s also proof that “taste freeze” is real—those teenage comfort films never let go. (Princess Diaries 2, The Devil Wears Prada, High School Musical—the rewatch game is strong, and intentional.)

But Samya isn’t just creating. She’s rethinking the whole machine:
💸 Posters in bus stops? Or paying your crew a living wage? Easy choice.
🎥 Don’t fake relatability—actually speak the audience’s language.
🔥 Art should kick something. Set something on fire. Heal something.

She’s not chasing permission. She’s building her own lane—and bringing her community with her, one radically honest TikTok at a time.

If you’ve ever felt like your work had to fit a box, Samya’s here to remind you:
Be cringe. Be excellent. Be unapologetically you.

How inspiring! 

On the latest episode of Unwritten+, Irina Ignatiew talks to Piodor Gustafsson, the producer and creative force behind Black Spark and Rainy Days — and one of the key figures shaping the rise of Scandinavian storytelling on the global stage.

We talk about:
🧠 How The Bridge was literally pulled out of the bin and turned into an international hit
🌍 Why great stories start with local roots — and how to make them resonate across borders, just like ABBA
🧬 The mushroom that launches Stockholm into intergalactic crisis in We Come In Peace
🍳 And how quiet leadership (and a killer fish roll with tapenade and lime sauce) builds lasting creative (black) sparks

We also cover the differences between public and commercial broadcasting, the art of backing the right stories, and why Piodor believes we need more mystery — not less — in storytelling.

🎙️ This one’s full of insight for producers, creators, and anyone working across cultures.

What’s it like to lead global teams, speak five languages fluently, and navigate careers at companies like Sony Pictures, Huawei, BetaFilm, and Movistar?

In this episode of Unwritten+, I speak with Maria Valenzuela, now founder of Brisa Media, to talk about building a career across borders—both geographic and cultural.

We dig into what it really means to work internationally: the unspoken rules, the misalignments, and the magic that happens when you learn to "translate" not just language, but mindset. Maria shares what it was like stepping into a Chinese tech giant as a Western woman, why she feels “a little German” after over a decade there, and how storytelling styles from different cultures can be blended to create something fresh and powerful.

We also talk about streaming fatigue, the promise and risk of AI, and why women still tend to attribute success to luck and hard work—not potential.

🎧 Whether you work across cultures, lead international teams, or just love hearing what really happens behind the scenes—this conversation is full of insight, honesty, and sharp takeaways.

Seriencamp Conference Special!

In this episode, I talk to Andri Ómarsson, co-CEO of Glassriver and one of the driving forces behind Iceland’s global TV boom. What starts as a chat about icy road movies (Cold Fever, anyone?) turns into a personal revelation: I suddenly realize The Case—a show we invested in 11 years ago as a coproduction at Red Arrow—was actually the first-ever Icelandic international co-production. And I only found that out mid-interview.

We also talk about:
– how wine, cod, and good instincts lead to cross-cultural storytelling
– what it feels like to “hit the wall” in Cannes
– why Trump’s proposed 100% tariff on foreign-shot films would be a disaster for Iceland’s production scene

– …and what Michael Bay has to do with Andri’s approach to success—yes, really.

Plus: Andri’s wild past in extreme production services—from diving with a camera in freezing water to operating Iceland’s first helicopter camera mount.

A sharp, fun, human conversation about building stories—and companies—across borders.

Connect with Andri over LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andriomarsson/

Take a look at Glassrivers Website here:

https://www.glassriver.is

Unwritten+ brings you conversations with people working across cultures and borders in media and beyond. In this special series for Seriencamp Conference, Germanys leading series festival and conference, I talk to some of the speakers and guests of Seriencamp to explore their creative sparks and global perspectives. More to come soon!