Drama of two expat families in Tanzania stars Sofie Gråbøl, Carsten Bjørnlund and Connie Nielsen.
Other main roles are played by Anton Hjejle (Follow the Money), Magnus Krepper (Before We Die) and Kenyan presenter/actor Charles Karumi. Mikael Marcimain (Call Girl) is directing all episodes.
The 5x58’ family drama is based on the last book in the ‘Africa Trilogy’ written by Danish author/journalist Jakob Ejersbo.
DR Drama producer Karoline Leth (The Legacy) came up with the idea for the screen adaptation, together with her brother, writer/director Asger Leth (Ghosts of Cité Soleil), head writer of the series.
Set in the 1980s in Tanzania, the character-driven drama focuses on two expat families, the Larssons from Sweden and Knudsens from Denmark. Parallel to the adult storyline, we follow the friendship between Christian, the rebellious teenage son in the Knudsen family and his friendship with Marcus, a local Tanzanian working as a helper at the Larssons. Cultural and social clashes, betrayal of principals, infidelity, greed and murder are some of the main themes in the first literary adaption for DR Drama.
Piv Bernth, Head of DR Drama said: “We are breaking one of DR Drama’s rules which is to create only original TV drama. But we’ve done this because Ejersbo's Liberty is a masterpiece in modern Danish literature."
“Liberty 'describes an extremely dramatic cultural collision between both humans and individuals, between two continents, between rich and poor and between hope and despair. It is a great work that contains many of the contradictions and dilemmas that are part of human life,’ noted Bernth.”
The TV show started shooting a few days ago in Denmark and filming will continue on June 2 in South Africa. Liberty will premiere on DR1 in 2018. DR Sales handles world sales.