Spellbinder (1995)

Genre

science fiction television series, fantasy television series

Country

Australia, Poland

Length

2 seasons, 52 episodes

Rated

12

Rating

7.7 of 10 from 40 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A Sydney teenager named Paul accidentally gets stuck in a parallel world where technology never developed. A small group of elites pretend their advanced gadgets are magic to control the scared population. Paul teams up with a local girl named Riana and uses his scientific knowledge to survive while his friends from home try to bring him back.

adventurouscurioussuspensefulwittynostalgicwhimsicalthought-provoking

What happens

Spellbinder (Polish: Dwa światy, lit. 'Two worlds') is a 1995 English-language fantasy adventure science fiction children's television series, co-produced between Australia and Poland, and filmed in both countries. The series follows the adventures of Sydney high-schooler Paul Reynolds (Zbych Trofimiuk) as he is accidentally stranded in a parallel world where the industrial revolution never happened. Only a small number of people there have technology – the "Spellbinders" – and they pretend it is magic and use it to rule over everyone else, manipulating people's fear and ignorance. Paul, with the help of a local girl called Riana (Gosia Piotrowska), uses his wits and his own knowledge of science to survive, whilst his high-school friends try to rescue him. The series has 26 episodes of 30 minutes each, and was produced by Film Australia and Telewizja Polska, in association with the Australian Children's Television Foundation (ACTF), who provide accompanying educational material for the series. Spellbinder was shot on location in Australia (Sydney, and the Blue Mountains), and in Poland where most scenes of the parallel world were filmed in Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, Ogrodzieniec, Zawiercie, Czocha Castle, and Książ. Czocha Castle was used as the Spellbinder's castle with Książ Castle serving for certain interior shots. The ruins of Ogrodzieniec Castle were used as the ruins of the Old Spellbinder's castle. Spellbinder won the Australian Film Institute's Award for Best Children's Television Drama in 1996. The series was also novelised by the creators, Mark Shirrefs and John Thomson, as Spellbinder Book 1: Riana's World and Spellbinder Book 2: Paul's World. Spellbinder was followed by a second series, called Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord, in which Heather Mitchell and Rafał Zwierz reprised their roles as the Spellbinder Ashka and her apprentice Gryvon respectively. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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