Lübeck, Oct. 05, 2020. The Danish series “Cry Wolf” (DK, 2019), created by Maja Jul and Pernille Fischer Christensen will see its German premiere at the 62nd Nordic Film Days Lübeck (Nov. 4-8, 2020). The episodic drama begins with a school essay in which 14-year-old Holly describes her stepfather’s violent abuse, triggering a bruising family crisis. Dedicated social worker Lars, played by Bjarne Henriksen (“The Hunt”, “Trapped”), believes Holly is telling the truth and puts her and her seven-year-old brother Theo into foster care. But over time, Lars’ self-assurance begins to waver.
Family structures are also the focus of “Immigrant-ish” (NO, 2020). Three families balance tradition and modern customs, old and new homelands, Norway and Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. While the young people strive to establish their own cultural identity, their parents’ generation tries to hang on to old traditions. Alcohol and abstinence, sex and chastity, offense and defence are just a few of the waypoints in the families’ stories in this series developed by creators Bahareh Badavi and Melike Leblebicioglu.
The Arctic Council is skating on the proverbial “Thin Ice” (SE/IS, 2020) when it tries to hammer out a treaty that will ban environmentally disastrous oil drilling in the Arctic region, while at the very same time, there is a terrorist attack on a Swedish oil research ship off the coast of Greenland. National interest, environmental activism, and the challenges of climate change all have a role to play in the search for the masterminds behind the attack. The leads in this episodic thriller are played by Lena Endre (of the “Millennium” trilogy) and Nukâka Coster-Waldau, familiar to Lübeck audiences from “The Raven and the Seagull” (NFL 2018) and “Anori” (NFL 2019).
“It is interesting that Nordic crime stories are conspicuously absent from this year’s selection of series for the Nordic Film Days. Instead, a lot of material has been developed that is highly complex, yet accessible for everyday viewers. Realism brings the stories right into our neighbourhood. The Nordic countries continue to spearhead the ongoing re-invention and transformation of the TV genre”, says Christian Modersbach, curator of the series section for the Nordic Film Days Lübeck.
The Icelandic production “The Minister” (IS, 2020) draws audiences into the political realm. Hrefna, the highly-motivated assistant to Iceland’s newly-elected prime minister, quickly realises that the charismatic head of state, played by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (“Trapped”, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”), suffers from bipolar disorder. But how do you discreetly steer a mentally-ill top politician through TV appearances and press conferences without anyone noticing?
Meanwhile, “The Paradise” (FI/ES, 2020) created by Matti Laine moves the action from northern Europe to the sunny southern coast of Spain. A villain is at work in a town where Finnish pensioners go to live out their days. When the Spanish and the Finnish police begin a joint investigation, two worlds collide.
Clearing up a criminal case is also the premise of the Swedish series “We Got This” (SE, 2020) developed by Patrik Eklund, Santiago Gil, and Schiaffino Musarra, who also plays the lead. In the opener, we meet unemployed commercials director George. With a mountain of debt and no job prospects, he needs a quick way to make money. So he decides to solve the murder of Olof Palme and collect the reward. George assembles a gang of equally tragic misfits, who dub themselves the Fantastic Four and set out to investigate the unsolved case.
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