52 minSeason 1 • Episode 8
LatestAs the orbital bomb is about to crash, Francis, Lyudmila and Anne risk capture and death. Yemelin, through powerful allies in France, will do anything to get the numbers back, as well as the list.
Set in 1965 in the midst of the Cold War, Totems follows a French scientist, Francis Mareuil, as he begins working as a spy. While working for the French Secret Service and the CIA, Mareuil meets Lyudmila Goloubeva, a pianist forced to work for the KGB. A romance blossoms between them but neither can be sure what is an expression of their true feelings, and what is the fruit of political shenanigans.
Acting
Niels Schneider's smoldering uncertainty, Vera Kolesnikova's guarded vulnerability
Production
Period-perfect 1965 atmosphere—every ashtray and trench coat feels lived-in
Niels Schneider
Francis Mareuil
Vera Kolesnikova
Lyudmila Goloubeva
José Garcia
Virgile Hiriart
Lambert Wilson
Charles Contignet
Ana Girardot
Anne Mareuil
Aleksey Guskov
Boris Goloubev
Mikhail Gorevoy
Dimitri Yemeline
Tim Ahern
Larry Goldstein
Daniela Hirsh
Hortense
Surho Sugaipov
Yuri Melia
Eden Ducourant
Martine
Carolina Jurczak
Marie Contignet
François Girard
Pierre
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The series captures a specific French fascination with the Cold War as intimate tragedy rather than geopolitical chess—think Melville's 'Army of Shadows' by way of 'The Americans'.
Creator Olivier Dujols spent years researching real French DST operations in Eastern Europe; the 'totems' code system is loosely based on actual dead-drop protocols used in Prague.
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