Spy/Master

Spy/Master is a Romanian fictional Cold War spy thriller television series created by Adina Sădeanu and Kirsten Peters and starring Alec Secăreanu. Set in 1978 and filmed in Hungary and Romania, the series is loosely based on the real-life defection of Romanian spymaster Ion Mihai Pacepa. The series was produced by Mobra Films and Proton Cinema for HBO Romania and Warner TV Serie and premiered on HBO Max in May 2023.

Plot

Victor Godeanu is the director of the Romanian Ministry of External Affairs and a trusted confidant of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena. Godeanu is secretly working for the Soviets but, with Romanian counter-intelligence about to expose him, decides to defect to the West. Whilst on a diplomatic trip to Bonn in West Germany to negotiate the repatriation of ethnic Germans living in Romania, Godeanu hands himself in at the American Embassy. CIA agent Frank Jackson is tasked with interrogating Godeanu who demands that the Americans extradite his daughter Ileana from Romania before he reveals classified information. An enraged Ceaușescu sends a team of spies to West Germany to kidnap and kill Godeanu as Jackson struggles to persuade his superiors to allow Godeanu into the USA. Intelligence agencies from five countries - Romania, USA, Soviet Union, East Germany and West Germany - become embroiled in the defection. Meanwhile, in an intertwined plot, a group of Egyptian militants try to scupper the Camp David peace negotiations between Egypt and Israel by bombing an Israeli target in Bonn.

Production

Spy/Master was filmed in Budapest, Hungary and Bucharest, Romania. All external scenes set in Bonn were filmed in Budapest with notable landmarks such as Déli station, Keleti station, Margaret Island, Frankel Leo Street Synagogue and the University of Technology and Economics doubling for locations in Bonn.

Cast

Alec Secăreanu as Victor Godeanu
Parker Sawyers as Frank Jackson
Ana Ularu as Carmen Popescu
Svenja Jung as Ingrid von Weizendorff
Laurențiu Bănescu as Mircea Voinea
Iulian Postelnicu as Sorin Rancea
Aidan McArdle as Walter Simpson
Nico Mirallegro as John Miller
Brian Caspe as George Tenet
Conor Lowson as Scott Dunlop
Marc Rissmann as Klaus Johan
as Adela Godeanu
Alexandra Bob as Ileana Godeanu
Claudiu Bleont as Nicolae Ceaușescu
as Elena Ceaușescu
Mido Hamada as Jabare Hassan
Amira El Sayed as Safiya Fahim
as Omar Fahim

Broadcast

The first two episodes of Spy/Master were premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2023. The entire series premiered globally on HBO Max on 19 May 2023. The series premiered in Germany on Warner TV Serie on 16 November 2023. The series premiered in the UK on BBC Four on 4 May 2024.

Awards

Spy/Master was nominated for the inaugural Berlinale Series Award in 2023. The series won NEM Award for Best Drama TV Series in the Central and Eastern European region at NEM Zagreb in December 2023.