A Cinematic Series · La Datcha · 2026
A Legacyof Discovery.
La Datcha — the centerpiece of expedition yachting.
Stories are how legacies last generations.
Produced by Stein Studios · In collaboration with EYOS Expeditions
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La Datcha — the centerpiece of expedition yachting.
Stories are how legacies last generations.
The vision: elevate how the world's greatest expedition yacht is told — and make La Datcha an icon that lasts generations. Every category has its icons, and the icons are made by storytelling — Calypso became Calypso because Cousteau put a camera on it.
Past guests, future charters, a global audience — everyone along for La Datcha's chapters.
The yacht industry has too many walkthrough videos. This series is built on hero's journeys and a real three-act story structure.
Leading with stories opens up new distribution — festivals and event activations.
Owner, via Nova Yachts. The named subject and the hero of the film's capability.
The world's leading expedition operator. Providing the expedition team and on-camera models — with founder Tim Soper aboard.
The new technology platform partner for luxury experiences.
Production lead.
How — and why — is La Datcha the centerpiece of expedition yachting, told through Kevin Koenig and Tim Soper. A three-act hero's journey, not a walkthrough: the most decorated voice in yachting crosses the one frontier he's never touched — aboard the vessel built to reach it. What follows is the logline, the arc, and the ingredients to build it.
For sixteen years, Kevin Koenig has been the voice of the yacht world — he has written about most of the world's great yachts, La Datcha among them, and never once set foot on her. He has never been to the Arctic. Aboard one of the most capable expedition yachts ever built, guided by the team that has taken more yachts to the ends of the earth than anyone, he finally crosses the one frontier a lifetime in yachting never took him — and discovers where the future of exploration begins.
Working logline. Hero — Kevin Koenig · Guide — Tim Soper · The vessel — La Datcha.
Not a wildlife chase, and not a walkthrough — a hero's journey told from Kevin's point of view, carried by one question: why does a vessel this specialized exist? Because we are explorers — and she is the cutting edge of how the world reaches its wildest places. This film opens that frontier to everyone.
Cold open: a lone figure standing before a glacier, dwarfed by a wall of ancient ice — the world Kevin is about to enter. Then Kevin himself: the man who has written about most of the world's great yachts, La Datcha among them, yet never boarded her, never been to the Arctic. A lifetime in yachting, one frontier untouched — until now. He boards La Datcha.
Now the exploration begins. In awe of the cutting edge beneath him, Kevin pushes into the unknown — La Datcha opening the most remote places on earth to discovery no one has had before, the pull of what waits beyond the ice. A cocoon of comfort in the harshest landscape: step into the cold, return to warmth. Beneath it, the second thread surfaces — why, and how, she was built.
At the edge of where almost no one goes, the man who knew yachting better than almost anyone finds the one thing he never knew — and the film opens a new frontier of travel to the world. The precipice of where exploration goes next.
Two red lines: Kevin's hero's journey (primary) + La Datcha's own story — why and how she was built (a documentary backbone, woven in for depth and retention). The frame: comfort in extreme places.
Reference: ladatcha.com · La Datcha on YouTube
The world's leading private expedition-yacht operator. "We define our own limits to take you beyond yours."
EYOS co-founder and three-decade polar expedition leader — the on-camera authority who can tell Svalbard's history as a family story.
~3,000 polar bears vs ~2,400 people. Walrus, Arctic fox, the world's smallest reindeer, beluga and 200-year-old bowhead whales.
From April to August the sun never sets — golden hour at 2 a.m., cold and low. The signature look of the place.
Glaciers cover ~60% of Svalbard; the permafrost is thawing and the town is being relocated. A place that rewards a small, quiet vessel.
"Blubber Town" — a Dutch whaling station rendering bowhead fat into lamp oil. Hunted out by ~1660; the brick ovens are still in the ground.
Andrée's balloon, found frozen 33 years later with photos still developable. Amundsen's airship over the Pole — the mast still stands.
Pyramiden's northernmost Lenin over an empty square. Longyearbyen, the world's northernmost town, closed its last coal mine in 2025.
Natural light and the midnight sun. Frames that breathe — the camera a witness, not a performer. The warmth of the vessel against the rawness of the ice: comfort in extreme places. Documentary truth over gloss; it observes, it never sells. For the combined visual and narrative tone, reference the brands' own worlds.
Tone references: ladatcha.com · eyos-expeditions.com
Reference films: The Rescue · Encounters at the End of the World · The Alpinist
Every category has its icons, and legacies are written through storytelling. Calypso became Calypso because Cousteau put a camera on it. La Datcha is built for that scale of story.