EXCLUSIVE: The Lena Góra-led Max Original series The Eastern Gate (fka The EasternGate) will premiere globally on Friday, January 31. Deadline has your first look at the Polish series via photos shared below.
Oscar nominee Jan P. Matuszynski will direct the suspense thriller which delves into the world of modern espionage during an emerging conflict and international unrest. It follows Ewa Oginiec (Góra), who, after a personal drama, wants to leave the Secret Service and start over. Things take a twist when her partner, also an agent, gets outed by Russian intelligence and vanishes mysteriously.
The Eastern Gate explores the mechanism of provocation on the global stage and the high-stakes battle between intelligence agencies in a world gripped by the complexities of hybrid warfare – quite topical, as it turns out.
The title of one of the first Max Original series refers to the Suwałki Gap, a critical spot along the border between Poland and Lithuania, both NATO member states, as well as Belarus and Russia (including the Kaliningrad Oblast which is a separate exclave from the main Russian territory). The Suwałki Gap is widely recognized as one of Europe’s top three hotspots, a critical territory for protecting NATO’s eastern flank and maintaining regional stability.
“The world feels more divided than ever, yet in some ways, united by a shared sense of confusion. As a Polish-American artist, I feel a deep responsibility to bridge these perspectives, connecting the history and realities of Eastern Europe with a global audience,” shared Góra in a statement to Deadline.
She continued, “Returning to Poland for The Eastern Gate allowed me to delve into the complexities of our time, portraying a female secret agent navigating the precarious moments leading up to the Ukraine war. This project is meaningful to me, much like my last film, Erupcja, as it seeks to shed light on universal confusions through the lens of our shared human experience.”
More photos can be found below.
