Cordon (TV series)

Cordon
Written by
Directed by	Tim Mielants
Country of origin	Belgium
Original language(s)	Dutch
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	20
Production
Location(s)	Antwerp
Production company(s)	Eyeworks
Distributor	VTM
Release
Original release	10 March 2014

Cordon is a 2014 Belgian Dutch-language drama series in 10 parts. It was first broadcast on VTM. The series was written by , directed by Tim Mielants and produced by Eyeworks. The series was also broadcast in the UK on BBC Four from 28 June to 25 July 2015, in five 2-part installments. An American version, titled Containment, was produced for The CW network and broadcast in 2016.

Cordon begins with the arrival of an illegal Afghan immigrant in a container, in Antwerp, Belgium. Shortly afterward, he visits the fictional National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) in the city to get inoculated against local infections. Police Commissioner Lex Faes is informed by higher authorities that he must arrest the immigrant at his relatives' home. Faes sends his best friend, Inspector Jokke Deelen, to pick up the suspect and take him to NIIDA. However, after the immigrant is in custody, Faes is told the man might have a viral infection, so Jokke is ordered to remain at the center.

Subsequently, the city neighborhood around the center is sealed off from the outside world to contain the virus. Shipping containers are placed across the entrance to all road junctions. Three gates (sluices) control access through which medical supplies and food are sent. Faes is placed in control of the southern section of the cordon. However, adding to his problems is the knowledge that his girlfriend is trapped at her place of work within the cordon.

As people start to become seriously ill with the virus and start dying, public order begins to break down within the containment area. Murder, violence, and theft take hold. Criminals seize control of the food distribution centers while others break into properties or rob from the weak. Meanwhile, a jaded journalist takes the persona The Horsemen, blogging about the unfolding disaster. He soon discovers that the official line coming from Sabine Lommers, the Minister for Health, is not the whole truth. With the help of Faes, he discovers that the virus was not brought into Antwerp by the Afghan immigrant; its origin was more likely NIID, itself.

The series reaches its climax when Faes realises he is being set up by the state's secret service, because his investigations are getting too close to the source of the outbreak. The journalist, whom Faes thought was helping him, admits he's been "gotten to" and has joined the official cover-up of the cause of the virus. Meanwhile Jokke, who has become disillusioned after seeing so many people he cared for die, rescues a young boy from criminals who are selling his bodily fluids (urine, blood) as a cure because he seems immune. He takes the boy to NIID, where Dr. Cannaerts, the center's professor, says that the boy's natural antibodies are stopping the virus, meaning there might be a cure. However, he tells Jokke, the boy was still infected, meaning the policeman is, too.

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