February landed some serious heavyweights when it comes to new films and series – most of which come from Denmark with the release of Prisoner on BBC and the cinema release of The Promised Land. Here is what we watched in February – Nordic Picks!
TV SERIES: Prisoner | BBC Four & BBC iPlayer
We were absolutely over the moon to learn that Denmark’s Prisoner (or Huset) was picked up by the BBC and released shortly afterwards here in the UK -it would come as no surprise that the series did not disappoint.
It features a fantastic cast including Sofie Gråbøl (The Killing), David Dencik (The Chestnut Man), Charlotte Fich (Unit One), and an excellent performance by Youssef Wayne Hvidtfeldt in on of his first major lead roles.
FILM: The Promised Land | Selected Cinemas
We thoroughly enjoyed Nikolaj Arcel’s The Promised Land which had a cast stacked full of famous faces from across the Nordic region, each putting in a very impressive performance.
The film has set a high bar to beat this year as it is already a huge favourite with the Nordic Watchlist team. Why not read our review of the film?
FILM: Northern Comfort | Netflix
Northern Comfort had been on our radar for some time but then all of a sudden it disappeared, only to reappear on Netflix. Fans of the excellent Icelandic black comedy, Under The Tree, will be excited to see the director’s follow up feature – which is English language as well.
Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson is a master at making dark comedies, this one is certainly a lot more accessible and perhapsa bit OTT for some, but it is very good fun. The cast is a fantastic mix with Timothy Spall stealing the show as a bunch of people who are scared of flying embark on a flight together to overcome their fear – only for utter chaos to ensue.
BOOK: Mayday by Grethe Bøe
After a flurry of book releases ahead of Christmas, and an early contender in January for book of the year (The Dancer), February has been virtually a tumbleweed month for new Nordic book releases.
It has though seen the English language release of Mayday, by Norwegian writer Grethe Bøe. Best known as an actress, screen writer and director, Bøe’s debut novel is a highly topical look at tensions between NATO and Russia. Set in the far north of Norway, when an F1 jet crashes the wrong side of the Norway/Russia border, Mayday is a rollercoaster race against time to save the incident escalating into something bigger.
This first novel isn’t entirely successful with the need to set extensive backstories coming at the expense of pace. It does though set the ground for what could be a popular new series.
What else happened in February?
- We spoke to director Nikolaj Arcel about his work on The Promised Land
- The team behind the Oscar nominated short film Knight of Fortune spoke to us about being the only Nordic nominated film in the awards.
- There was a guest post from the Borgen Podcast crew discussing Sidse Babett Knusden’s short film WOACA which they saw at Toronto.
- There was more exciting design news from Tim with our new monthly design feature
- Glen wrote about Bodø – The European Capital of Culture 2024
What series did you discover and enjoy this month? Anything we have missed and need to catch?
