12/01/2023 - The show, acquired by Netflix, stars a cast mostly made up of non-professionals and is set within Oslo’s criminal underworld

Ole Endresen’s new six-episode crime-thriller series Gangs of Oslo will premiere on VoD service TV 2 Play on 19 January. Netflix has acquired the global rights outside of Norway, and after a six-month hold-back period for the Nordic countries, it will make it available in the rest of the world. The news was first reported by Variety and was confirmed by the US-based streaming platform.

Created and helmed by Endresen and inspired by Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine, the show features a cast mostly made up of non-professionals, alongside thesps such as Per Kjerstad (the TV series Made in Oslo), Janne Heltberg (the TV series Headhunters), Ingvild Lakou (the TV series Raised by Wolves) and newcomer Ishak Kaya.

Endresen is best know for his work on successful TV projects such as Lilyhammer, Bulletproof and Young Wallander.

Gangs of Oslo promises to be “Snabba Cash [+see also:
trailer
film profile] meets City of God, with a touch of The Wire”. In detail, the plot will focus on cop Moaz (IT student Emir Zamwa), who gets transferred from the westside of Oslo to a suburb in the east of town, where he grew up. He soon realises that the leader of the criminal gang, Enemiez, whom he is tracking, is his former childhood friend Rami (plumber Mohamed Youssef).

As Rami battles to keep control of his slice of Oslo’s criminal underworld, he forces Moaz into becoming the gang’s insider in the police. The latter gets increasingly entangled in the gang’s web, and is torn between loyalty to the police forces and to his friend, to whom he has been eternally indebted since childhood.

Gangs of Oslo is being staged by Norway’s Monday Scripted for TV 2. Cecilie Tiderman is producing, with Lasse Hallberg serving as the executive producer and Sajid Malik as the co-producer. The show is the third to be backed by TV 2 in association with the Los Gatos-based giant, after Girl from Oslo and Borderliner.