EXCLUSIVE: Mediawan Africa, the Republic of Benin and French-language international channel TV5 Monde are partnering to co-develop original daily fiction series The Best Is Yet To Come.
The ambitious project – which has set an initial target of 220 episodes of 26 minutes – aims to break fresh ground for drama production in Africa to create a daily show featuring and developing pan-African talent across all disciplines.
The drama will revolve around students on a fictional campus in Benin – hailing from the country as well as wider Africa and further afield – as they navigate the path to adulthood, caught between tradition and modernity.
The opening premise revolves around five young people who have nothing in common but are forced to live together in a villa while waiting for their student accommodation.
This creates as explosive situation that will have consequences for all the characters in the series including professors, other students, parents and residents of the town where the campus is located.
The aim is to create a popular daily family-oriented show for TV5 Monde’s French-speaking audiences in Africa, with appeal to the wider world.
The project also marks an important step for the Republic Of Benin as the West African country pushes on with a strategy to become a leading cultural and creative industries hub in the region, in a project spearheaded by President Patrice Talon to create more opportunities for the 13 million-strong population.
The country’s new smart, eco-city Sèmè City, which was launched in 2017, and is taking shape across 35,000 hectares outside the city of Ouidah in southern Benin, will host the show’s production with dedicated studios and also act as a key backdrop for the drama.
Sèmè City, which was created with a remit to become a regional hub of excellence in higher education, innovation, and entrepreneurship, is also building a training center that will be connected to the show.
The creative teams of Keewu Production, Mediawan Africa’s Senegal-based production arm, and TV5 Monde will work closely with talents who will have benefited from writing workshops taking place at Sèmè City, and organized with the support of the Beninese government, which is keen to accelerate the development of the audiovisual sector.
Benin’s Arts and Culture Development Agency (ACDA) is also a partner on the writing workshops, alongside Sèmè City.
The country sees The Best Is Yet To Come as an opportunity to train and then create employment for hundreds of professionals in various fields, from scriptwriting to production, direction, post-production, as well as artistic and technical roles.
Former Sony Pictures Exec Claude Borna, Managing Director and Chief Innovation Officer at Sèmè City, says the project fits perfectly with reforms begun in 2016 to expand Benin’s economy beyond traditional sectors of agriculture and cotton production.
“The cultural and creative industries are an important element of these reforms, as a way to create new sources of employment for younger generations as well as shine a positive light on the country, which can help tourism and generate soft power,” she said.
Noting that Benin neighbors Nigeria, which is home to the third biggest film industry in the world, Borna said that the country has decided to focus its audiovisual strategy on high-quality productions and becoming a training hub for the whole region.
Mediawan Africa president François Thiellet said that he had been in discussion with TV5 Monde for some two years over the production of a daily drama out of Africa and that the The Best Is Yet To Come project represented the happy conjunction of the ambitions of the three partners.
Thiellet has spent more than 40 years working across Africa, creating African content specialist Thema TV in 2004, before taking up his role at Mediawan Africa in 2021.
“The commitment, determination, and political vision of Benin in investing in the development of the audiovisual industry convinced us to actively participate in the creation of this new audiovisual hub,” said Thiellet. “I get a real sense that something is happening in Benin right now.”
Other elements in the country’s favor, he added, were the diversity of its landscapes, its high standard of spoken French, and the political stability of the country.
“It’s one of the countries in the region offering the best perspective of stability. This combined with the political vision, the quality of the people we spoke to, and the spirit of reactivity convinced us it was the right environment,” he said.
TV5 Monde CEO Yves Bigot said the project was also the fruit of TV5 Monde’s ongoing commitment to making original content aimed at its African audience.
“The best is yet to come will be the crown jewel in TV5 Monde’s politics of investment in African production, going back fifteen years, which makes our eight tv channels, streaming service TV5MONDEplus and our app TV5MONDEAfrica, the worldwide broadcaster of African movies and tv series.”
A branch of Paris-based Mediawan, Mediawan African was launched in 2021 with the aim of producing original, high-quality fiction for African and global networks, with a focus on African talents. Its subsidiaries include Keewu and independent Africa-focused distributor Côte Ouest.
TV5 Monde is available in 198 countries, reaching 432 million households.
“By supporting this innovative project, Benin asserts itself as the emerging cultural center of Africa, prepared to unveil its exceptional heritage to the world. The best is yet to come is more than just a series; it is a celebration of Beninese and African talents. We look forward to seeing this inspiring collaboration come to life,” said Jean-Michel Abimbola, Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Arts of Benin.
