Airdate: Chimerica

4 part UK drama Chimerica screens on SBS later this month.

The series centres around a search for the man in the iconic photo standing up to tanks rolling through China’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

An adaptation of Lucy Kirkwood’s critically acclaimed play it stars Alessandro Nivola, Cherry Jones, Sophie Okonedo, F. Murray Abraham and Terry Chen.

This launches with a double episode and concludes with a double the following week.

It launched in the UK last month following a screening at Series Mania.

Lee Berger is a dedicated American photojournalist and passionate idealist who has lost his way after years of working in war zones. He is constantly trying to live up to his early success, where an electrifying photograph he took as a young man nearly 30 years ago in Tiananmen Square skyrocketed him into fame. It was an image of a man in a white shirt, a carrier bag in each hand, standing up to the might of the Chinese military, referred to as the ‘Tank Man’.

When accusations of fake news are levelled against him, his world falls apart. Desperate to reclaim his credibility, and remember the photographer he used to be, Lee sets out on a journey to find the Tank Man, convinced he is alive and well and living in New York City.

8:30pm Thursday, 23 May on SBS.