Featuring story elements that could be ripped from the headlines, international crime drama Cold Courage is set to make its stateside premiere.
Based on the award-winning and best-selling “Studio” series of novels by Finnish journalist Pekka Hiltunen, Cold Courage follows two Finnish women in present-day London whose pasts return to haunt them as they join forces to stop a politician while the police investigate a series of murders.
It’s six weeks before the elections, and magazine graphic artist Lia (Sofia Pekkari, The Sandhamn Murders, Arne Dahl) is doing freelance work making flyers for the campaign of Arthur Fried, the candidate of the Fair Rule party, whose slogan is “Putting the Great Back in Great Britain.” Even with these gigs, Lia still doesn’t have enough money to make the rent, much less be able to lend any to help her friend, Nina, escape London.
Money isn’t Mari’s (Pihla Viitala, Deadwind, Arctic Circle) problem; Arthur Fried (John Simm, Life on Mars, Doctor Who) is. Mari heads up a clandestine group called the Studio — a small team of like-minded people dedicated to righting the wrongs of the powerful, the influential, and the corrupt — and they are working to prevent Fried, a dangerous, charismatic politician, from gaining any more ground than he already has. But they need more than what they have to “fix things.” They need someone to infiltrate his campaign. They need Lia.
And the reluctant Lia agrees, naive to what the Studio will ask of her and to the dangers she is putting herself in. The one she is well aware of, the one that caused her to leave Finland with no money, no anything, has also left that country — and has found Lia in London. But Lia hasn’t found Nina, who seems to have gone missing. Meanwhile, Mari’s father in Finland stops answering his phone. Mari has an uncanny ability to read people, not just their outward manners but their innermost thoughts, too. And she senses that something is wrong back home.
Elsewhere in the greater London area, a young Muslim boy lies comatose in hospital, as the police work to identify the disfigured body of a woman found murdered, and a group of frightened and abused young women is held captive…
While the story takes place in London, Cold Courage is as dark and moody as any noir crime drama set in one of the Nordic countries. The slow-burn pace, nighttime settings, and shadowy figures build even more tension into a narrative in which danger lurks in places you would and wouldn’t expect.
The eight-episode thriller features an international cast from across Europe. Playing members of the Studio are Irishman Peter Coonan (Love/Hate) as Paddy, Swede Jakob Eklund (Johan Falk) as Berg, Brit Caroline Goodall (The White Princess) as Maggie, and Belgian Matteo Simoni (Thieves of the Wood) as Rico.
The cast also includes Arsher Ali (Line of Duty), Elmer Bäck (Idiomatic), Jurgen Delnaet (Amigos), Maria Doyle Kennedy (Corp + Anam), Keith McErlean (Trivia), Aislín McGuckin (Outlander), Jussi Nikkilä (Hooked), Pääru Oja (Vikings: Valhalla), Jeroen Perceval (De Dag), Antti Reini (Private Eye Vares), and Charlotte Timmers (Hotel Beau Séjour).
A production of Luminoir, Nordic Entertainment Group, Potemkino Port, Vico Films, and Sagafilm Nordic, the series was written by BAFTA nominee David Joss Buckley (Hinterland) and Brendan Foley (Flying with Byrd), and directed by Agneta Fagerström-Olsson (Wallander) and Kadir Ferati Balci (Amigos).
Cold Courage premieres in the US with its first three episodes tomorrow, Thursday, March 11, exclusively on AMC+, the ad-free streaming bundle available on Prime Video Channels and other digital content providers. New episodes will debut weekly through April 15.
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