Director: Matthias Lebeer, Hans Herbots

Cast: Pierre Gervais, Lauren Versnick, Stephen Tompkinson, Donna Banya, Frank Bourke

This is Not a Murder Mystery is a 2025 Belgian-Irish crime drama series co-directed by Matthias Lebeer and Hans Herbots, set against the glittering world of 1930s European Surrealism. The show blends dark comedy, locked-room suspense, and art-world intrigue into a stylish period mystery that delights in subverting genre expectations.

What is This is Not a Murder Mystery about?

Paris, the 1930s. A gathering of Europe's most celebrated avant-garde artists — including a brash young Dalí and the enigmatic Magritte — converges on an opulent country estate for what promises to be a night of decadence and creative rivalry. When guests begin dying under bizarre circumstances, the assembled geniuses find that their celebrated imaginations may be their only defense against a killer who seems to move through the house like a phantom. Each episode peels back another layer of suspicion, forcing unlikely alliances among painters, poets, and provocateurs who would rather argue about aesthetics than cooperate on survival. The title's winking self-awareness sets the tone: nothing here is quite what it seems, and the genre itself is part of the game.

Cast & crew

Pierre Gervais and Lauren Versnick anchor the ensemble as the de facto sleuths of the mansion, while veteran British actor Stephen Tompkinson brings grounded menace as a figure whose loyalties remain opaque. Donna Banya, Frank Bourke, Jonathan Delaney Tynan, Florence Hall, and Iñaki Mur round out a pan-European cast that lends the production a genuinely cosmopolitan texture. The co-direction by Lebeer and Herbots keeps the ensemble balanced across its 53-minute episodes.

Context & significance

For Persian-speaking viewers abroad, This is Not a Murder Mystery offers exactly the kind of sophisticated European storytelling that has always found an enthusiastic audience in Iran and the diaspora — a tradition that prizes literary wit, visual elegance, and moral ambiguity over simple thrills. The Surrealist milieu gives the series a painterly quality rare in television crime drama, and its Belgium-Ireland co-production pedigree places it firmly in the wave of quality European genre television that rivals prestige American fare. The series is available on K-Time with Persian subtitles, so nothing is lost in the experience for Farsi-speaking audiences who want to engage with the original performances.

Where & how to watch

This is Not a Murder Mystery is available now on K-Time with Persian subtitles. Watch on your browser, smart TV, or phone — no VPN required, no geo-blocking, no extra download needed. Start watching today and cancel anytime.