Deal on Arte: Will there be a second season for the political series?

Behind the scenes of power

If you tuned in to the launch of The Deal on October 23rd at Arte, you’ll be able to find out tonight from 8.55pm. The end of this series, which is the result of a collaboration between French director Alice Winocourt and Swiss documentarian Jean-Stephane Bron.

Over the course of six 46-minute episodes, the duo immerses viewers in a political closed-door session taking place during the final phase of the Iran nuclear talks held in Switzerland in 2015.

Alexandra Weiss – Belgian actress Veerle Baetens – head of the Swiss diplomatic mission, trying to maintain a delicate balance between the moving parties behind the scenes. The unexpected arrival of her former love, Payam Sanjab, an Iranian engineer whose life is in danger, will complicate her task dangerously.

Based on real material and significant research work, the authors have told stories of pure fiction, managing history and intimacy and creating real tension.

Is a second season possible?

The deal was created as a mini-series consisting of six episodes. Therefore, there is little chance that the second season will see the light of day. In addition, because the program is filmed in a historical event, the end of the deal is modeled after the outcome of the negotiations held in Vienna in 2015.

Director Jean-Stephane Bron comes from a documentary background and has already had the opportunity to delve behind the scenes of institutions in his work. It’s hard to imagine him developing a purely fictional Season 2 that isn’t based on some historical reality.

On the other hand, he and Alice Vainokur could draw another diplomatic event to spin new fiction out of it, and why not turn the deal into an anthology, where each season will have new characters, brought together in a new setting, but whose themes will be diplomacy and politics.

Promotion, 6 x 46 minutes, on Arte from 23 October at 20:55 and now available in full on arte.tv