The trailer of the series "Dear Willie" will be shown at the presentation of the new season of IRI

The Institute for Internet Development (ANO IRI) will hold a presentation of the new season on September 25, where it will summarize the work and tell about the main premieres of 2025-2026. The trailer of the joint project of IRI and REN TV: the series "Dear Willy" will be shown within its framework.

The historical series "Dear Willy" tells the story of the secret friendship of two main geopolitical rivals in Europe — Soviet Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev and West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, who saved the world from a nuclear catastrophe during the Cold War. Sergei Makovetsky played the role of USSR Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev in the political detective story, and Kirill Kyaro played German Chancellor Willy Brandt.

The action takes place in the 1960s. The world is on the verge of nuclear war. Soviet intelligence becomes aware that the United States is preparing to launch a strike from military bases located in Germany. Realizing that a retaliatory ultimatum would trigger a catastrophe, Soviet Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev (Sergei Makovetsky) decides to enter into a secret agreement with German Chancellor Willy Brandt (Kirill Kyaro). Both politicians are at risk: if their contacts become known, one will be expelled from the party, and the other will be impeached. The operation must be conducted in the strictest secrecy, so that even the KGB would not know about it. Brezhnev sets the task of finding a person not from the "system". The choice falls on German journalist Valery Pletnev (Alexey Rozin), who is married to Kira Zheltovskaya (Marietta Tsigal-Polishchuk), the star of the Kabachok 13 Chairs program beloved by the general Secretary, and Vyacheslav Vardanov (Sergey Marin), a former KGB officer. Two people so unlike each other, united by friendship and a common goal – to recruit the first person of West Germany, embark on an unprecedented mission. The CIA is trying to disrupt their plans, and the head of the GDR state security, Erich Milke (Alexander Kodanev), is also giving the command to eliminate the Moscow guests.

The plot of the series is based on historical materials that documentarian, writer and presenter of the REN TV channel Igor Prokopenko has been collecting for 20 years: documents, numerous interviews with the inner circle of both Leonid Brezhnev and Willy Brandt, politicians, intelligence officers. The script of the political detective story was written by Igor Prokopenko in collaboration with Dmitry Novoselov.

"I admit that the viewer, after watching the series, may mistake everything that happens on the screen for the fiction of the scriptwriters – the events will seem too incredible. However, our "Willy" is that rare case when the real story is cooler than the most sophisticated writer's fantasy. To prove this, we are making a documentary afterword for the series, "Dear Willy: it was like that," in which the most incredible episodes are confirmed by the real participants in the events: Egon Bahr, Markus Wolf, Vyacheslav Kevorkov, Dave Murphy – people with whom I worked for many years, were friends and whom I endlessly filmed, realizing that The time will come when their confessions will be invaluable," said Igor Prokopenko, general producer, author of the idea, and screenwriter.

The Dear Willy project implements the enormous cinematic possibilities of our country, said the director of the series, Vladimir Shchegolkov.

"Filming takes place in three cities — Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad. We collide the Soviet textures of Moscow with the textures of Prussian Tilsit (now Sovetsk) and varnish imperial St. Petersburg. A magnificent acting ensemble. We believe, and we do everything to ensure that the audience is not disappointed. The genre of political detective is very complex and obliges us to be precise in characters and details," he said.

Sergei Makovetsky, who plays Leonid Brezhnev, said he agreed to star in the project because it was "an interesting story with unknown facts."

"Volodya Shchegolkov, a director with whom I am always interested in working, offered me to star in the film, he sets ambitious acting goals. Our last collaborations are the TV series "Cerberus" and "Luck". The story unfolding in Dear Willy, a film that echoes the famous Soviet film The Dead Season, is interesting to me in its style, timing, and the questions it asks. I had to play a character who was completely different from me in appearance, older in age and speaking a language completely unknown to me. I had to learn German for the role — it was a challenge, and I accepted it," added Kirill Kyaro, who plays Willy Brandt.

With the support of ANO IRI, more than 2 thousand socially significant projects have been released since 2020, which have collected over 20 billion views. The presentation will feature exclusive materials and flagship projects of various genres and formats that will be released next season, including historical, family, fantasy, animated series, web series and online shows featuring popular bloggers, educational and documentary projects, video games, audio and multi-format content.

IRI will also present an expanded catalog of content at various stages of production. Joint projects with NMG Studio: the art series "The Game of flight", "It's hard to be a God", "Lilies of the Valley. The Second Spring", "Curious Varvara-2", "Staff". A joint project with REN TV: the feature series "Dear Willie", the documentary series "Dear Willie. The real story."

Alexey Goreslavsky, General Director of the IRI, and Elena Lapina, General Producer of the IRI, will speak at the presentation.