From the Tower of Babel to Greek Salad : language, cooperation, and the economics of European series production

Growing international coproduction combined with an interest in cross-border storytelling have led to an increase in both series productions with multilingual dialogue and linguistically complicated backstories pertaining to their inception, writing, and making. This article analyzes the multilingual dimensions of four notable series that are the results of a combination of French approaches and perspectives and European industry trends, strategies, and institutional frameworks: DNA (Arte with Danish TV2, 2019), No Man’s Land (Arte with Hulu, 2020-), Midnattssol/Jour Polaire/Midnight Sun (Canal+ and Swedish public broadcaster SVT, 2016), and Salade Greque/Greek Salad, Amazon Prime Video, 2022). The article explores the impact of institutional and corporate strategies on content and casting of ‘less monolingual’ and multilingual series that are the products of producers’ attempts to strike balance between local and global. It argues that the variety of platforms and producers creating multilingual series shows the appeal of this form of television in Europe and beyond.