05/04/2017 - The Norwegian director’s new series is soon to screen in competition at the Séries Mania Festival

Monster (l-r): Norwegian producer Lasse Greve Alsos, director Anne Sewitsky, and lead actors Jakob Oftebro and Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes (© Finn Krogvig/NRK)

While preparing Sonja: The White Swan [+see also:
trailer
interview: Anne Sewitsky
interview: Ine Marie Wilmann
film profile], the biopic of legendary Norwegian figure-skating champion and later Hollywood actress Sonja Henie (1912-1969), Norwegian director Anne Sewitsky has completed her new TV series, Monster, which Norwegian pubcaster NRK will air this autumn and which is shortly to screen in the international competition at the Séries Mania Festival (13-23 April).

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Created by Sewitsky and Norwegian author Hans Christian Storrøsten, the “character-driven thriller-drama” is set in Nemesoara, a fictional small town in northern Norway that is shaken by several brutal killings, now being investigated by the local police and a national Kripos detective.

“We have a great cast of both famous and less well-known actors for the fascinating characters in this peculiar universe,” said Sewitsky. Jakob Oftebro plays Special Investigator Joel Dreyer, who collaborates with the local policewoman, Hedda Hersoug (Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes). Bjørn Sundquist (the town’s sheriff), Per Kjerstad and Gørild Mauseth are also among the cast members.

While following up on the leads, Dreyer and Hersoug discover that several old murder cases are connected to the recent killings and that the tiny community’s most powerful family also controls most of the criminal activity in the area. And when the investigation spirals out of control, the sheriff – who otherwise hates conflicts – has to step in. 

Co-produced by Norway’s Rein Film, Denmark’s DR and Sweden’s SVT, the series was shot on the Varanger Peninsula in Finnmark, north-east Norway – “a part of the country with a national park, which was considered very exotic by our international partners”, according to Norwegian producer Lasse Greve Alsos.

The Norwegian pubcaster has also started production for another major series, Norwegian director Hanne Larsen’s The Profiteer (Profitøren), which the Norwegian Film Institute has supported by allocating it €1.3 million in funding. The Feelgood Scene, Film & TV thriller, co-created by Norwegian screenwriter Lars Gudmestad, follows a researcher whose life is put in jeopardy when she discloses that a big shipping company has built its fortunes on brutal war crimes.