The Hague: The EU's corridors of power and the mean streets of Brussels form an ominous backdrop to a new pay-TV series debuting yesterday on a Dutch channel, portraying the Belgian capital as never seen before.
"Brussel" is a 10-part series by global content provider EndemolShine, taking viewers into the dark underbelly of European politics, power, deceit and lust.
The interwoven tale involves multiple characters, but focuses mainly on Dutch top oil executive Moniek van Dalen, who returns to the Belgian city to try to clinch a massive oil deal.
There she runs into her former lover Viktor Petrenko, who in the chaotic years after the fall of the Soviet Union became a Russian oligarch, now worth billions of dollars. "Both are in Brussels to lobby for their own energy interests, but there's room for only one deal," the publishers said in a synopsis.
Elsewhere in the city, a father and decorated soldier scours the streets for his radicalised son, fearing he might join jihadists fighting in Syria.
The series also introduces viewers to Moniek's daughter Nadja, who has a Russian boyfriend Pjotr, whom she wants to marry.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan, a young man named Mahmud plans a journey to Brussels with a secret mission -- and so too does the Congolese Ekweme, who wants to travel there to find his lost lover.
"On one fatal evening, everybody finds themselves in Brussels, driven by revenge or love, or both," according to the synopsis.
Series writer and celebrated Dutch author, Leon de Winter, said "Brussel" was inspired after watching an episode of the popular Netflix US drama series "House of Cards", featuring actor Kevin Spacey as scheming Washington politician Frank Underwood.
"I thought, hang on, here in Europe we have a city similar to Washington: Brussels," De Winter said.
"It's the EU's capital, a metropolis with more departments, think tanks and lobbyists than even in DC. At once my head filled with intertwining ideas about politics, the economy, crime and terror," he said.
During shooting, the producers sometimes came closer to reality than their fictional tale.
"We were busy with the second day of filming when Brussels was attacked" in March last year by suicide bombers, series director Arno Dierickx said.
"At Zaventem airport, a bomb even exploded where we were going film later," he said.
"Brussel" will be screened on the subscription channel of Dutch telecoms company KPN at 2100 GMT on Friday.
