The City and the City

The City and the City is a British television serial, first screened in April 2018. It is a science-fiction/crime drama, based on the novel of the same name by China Miéville. The story follows the investigation of a young woman's murder in the unusual twin cities of Besźel and Ul Qoma. The miniseries was produced by Mammoth Screen for BBC Two, scripted by Tony Grisoni and directed by Tom Shankland. Setting The setting (the sci-fi aspect of the production) is the twin cities of Besźel and Ul Qoma, fictional city-states somewhere in eastern Europe. The two cities have differing societies, cultures, technologies and language, yet co-exist in the same geographical space. The separation is achieved by the residents of each city "unseeing" the other, while being aware of it, and the separation is enforced by a shadowy organization called Breach. While crossing the border is possible (after a lengthy re-orientation process), those who "breach" the separation illegally are taken by Breach and disappear forever. Synopsis Tyador Borlú, a detective in Besźel, is given the task of solving the murder of Mahalia Geary. He is assisted by Constable Lizbyet Corwi. After posters of Mahalia are placed around the city, Borlú receives an anonymous tip from a woman in Ul Qoma, despite no posters having been placed there. He determines she must have seen it by illegally looking across the border into Besźel. Corwi acquires a tape containing evidence that the murder was committed in Ul Qoma, and the investigation is transferred to the Ul Qoman police. Borlú travels to there to assist to detective Quissima Dhatt. In a series of flashbacks, Borlú is haunted by memories of his wife Katrynia. They had met on a trip to Ul Qoma, where she had attended a lecture by writer David Bowden, who espouses his theory of the existence of a hidden third city named Orciny. After being turned down by Bowden at a bar, Katrynia attempted suicide by drowning, but was saved by Borlú; she returned to Besźel with him and they married. Katrynia met Bowden again when he took a trip to Besźel, and disappeared that night. Borlú suspects she entered one of the Dissensi, disputed zones belonging to neither of the two cities, in pursuit of Orciny.