Each month, Nordic Watchlist curates the best in film, TV, and literature from across the Nordic region, bringing you our standout picks in one place. Nordic Spotlight: Best in Screen and Page is your go-to roundup for the month.
This Month on Nordic Watchlist:
- TV Series Review: The Streets Where I Live
- TV Series Review: Bordertown Season 2
- TV Series Review: The Glass Dome
- Film Review: The Ugly Stepsister
FILM: The Ugly Stepsister | Cinemas (UK and USA)
We might have found one of our favourites of the year so far in The Ugly Stepsister. Perhaps not for everyone, but we found this to be a lot of good, gory fun. The Ugly Stepsister is a darkly comedic twist on the classic Cinderella story, exploring the themes of beauty standards and the lengths we go to striving for ‘perfection’, the need for love and the greed for money.
Director Emilie Blichfeldt has seriously proven to be an exciting talent to look out for in the future, and alongside her is the performance by Lea Myren. To many, Lea Myren is a pretty unknown actress in the US and UK, but in Norway she is widely recognised for her amazing performance in Kenneth Karlstads Kids in Crime. Like Emilie, she is a serious talent, and her performance in The Ugly Stepsister is absolutely brilliant.
If you missed it in the cinemas, fear not, it will be arriving on Shudder next month (dates TBC).
TV SERIES: The Glass Dome | Netflix (Worldwide)
The Glass Dome this six-part Swedish crime drama from bestselling author Camilla Läckberg is your next Nordic noir obsession. The Glass Dome (Glaskupan) takes us to the seemingly idyllic town of Granås, where Lejla (Léonie Vincent) returns home after her adoptive mother’s death—only to be pulled into a chilling mystery that echoes her own childhood trauma. A missing girl, buried secrets, and a haunting past converge in a tightly wound thriller that’s anything but predictable.
Directors Henrik Björn and Lisa Farzaneh set the mood with washed-out visuals and unsettling imagery, while Vincent delivers a powerhouse performance as a woman fraying at the edges. With brilliant turns from Johan Hedenberg and Johan Rheborg, a tangle of side plots involving racism, protests, and small-town tensions add further layers to the mystery.
It all builds to a jaw-dropping finale that’s equal parts disturbing and brilliant. The Glass Dome isn’t just another whodunnit—it’s a masterfully crafted, emotionally loaded ride that’ll have you questioning everything until the final seconds.
What did you discover this month? Anything we have missed and need to catch?
