Mother Nature meets Nordic noir in Trapped, the ratings-busting Icelandic thriller that is set for its highly-anticipated UK premiere on BBC Four this weekend.
The weather outside might be frightful, what with this, that, and the other storm lashing the UK from one end to the other. But hey, it could be worse.
Such as in Trapped (Ófærð), the ten-part Icelandic crime thriller whose cost of nearly 1 billion Icelandic króna (£5.4M/€7M/$7.9M) makes it the most expensive television series ever produced in Iceland. Icelanders also tuned in in droves back in December for the series premiere, which broke domestic records by delivering an unprecedented 88% share* of viewers aged 12-80.
In the small, coastal Icelandic town of Seyðisfjörður, murder meets mayhem when a blizzard roars in shortly after an international ferry pulls into port and fisherman discover a decapitated and dismembered corpse in a fjord.
Andri (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, The Deep, A Walk Among the Tombstones), the town’s Chief of Police, has his work cut out for him: A murderer is on the loose on his patch, and the residents of Seyðisfjörður, along with the passengers and crew of the ferry, are trapped by the snowstorm. No one can get out. No help can get in. Not from Reykjavik or anywhere else.
Not helping matters is Captain Carlsen (Bjarne Henriksen, Borgen, The Killing), who’s reticence about why his ferry is in Seyðisfjörður to begin with could be construed as perverting the course of justice in Chief Andri and Deputy Henrika’s (Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir, Virgin Mountain) murder investigation. Then a suspect dies, and more mysteries follow…
Created by Icelandic director/producer/actor Baltasar Kormákur (Everest, 101 Reykjavík, The Deep), Trapped is a production of Kormákur’s RVK Studios, and is written by Clive Bradley (City of Vice), Sigurjón Kjartansson (Ástríður), Ólafur Egilsson (Afinn), and Jóhann Ævar Grímsson (The Night Shift).
The series is produced by RVK’s Kormákur and Magnús Viðar Sigurðsson (Mr. Bjarnfreðarson); directed by Kormákur, Baldvin Zophoníasson (Life In A Fishbowl), Óskar Thór Axelsson (Black’s Game), and Börkur Sigþórsson (Come To Harm); and executive produced by Dan March and Klaus Zimmermann of Dynamic Television.
Trapped premieres in the UK with two back-to-back episodes tomorrow, 13 February 2016, starting at 9 PM BST, on BBC Four.
(For stateside Euro TV fans, The Weinstein Company has secured US rights to the series, so stay tuned for details about when and where it will screen.)
* Source: Nordisk Film & TV Fond
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