The eight-part drama comedy about fertility and child-bearing is backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond and just started filming in the Norwegian capital.

Made in Oslo (previously known as Plan B) is created and written by Kathrine Valen Zeiner (Valkyrien, Eyewitness), with Marit Moum Aune (Struggle for Life) serving as director.

Pia Tjelta (Blind Spot, State of Happiness, Norsemen) plays Elin, a gynaecologist who runs a fertility clinic. She is always empathetic and professional, and more than anything, she longs for the same opportunity herself. As her frustration grows, Elin becomes prepared to risk her relationships and career in order to start a family of her own.

Zeiner said she wants Made in Oslo “to capture the obsession of an unfulfilled desire for children”. “The main character Elin puts at risk her marriage, the relationship with her step-daughter and career to fulfil the dream of becoming a mother. It is both irrational and deeply understandable at the same time”, said the creator who unveiled at a pitching session two years ago that she was inspired by her own experience for the show.

“Myself, when I was longing for a child, I looked at a European sperm online website and all of a sudden started tapping the numbers of my credit card! There’s a whole industry out there, yet it’s related to something primal,” she said.

The series is produced by Nina B. A. Figenschow and Ingunn Sundelin of Tordenfilm, with support from Nordisk Film & TV Fond, the Norwegian Film Institute, co-financing from Storyline Studios, Filmparken and Paris-based media conglomerate Federation Entertainment.

Léo Becker, International Acquisitions & Co-productions Executive says Federation boarded the project at script stage. “We had been following this project for well over a year and were always seduced by its story and characters,” he told nordicfilmandtvnews.com. “After reading a first script, we finally came onboard at the beginning of the year, to help the producers from Tordenfilm seek additional financing throughout Europe. Then the covid-19 crisis came along and froze the market for a while, but we are confident in the show nonetheless,” he said, underscoring the “universal theme” of infertility. 

“Everyone around the world has either been through this mill, or knows someone who has, and it opens up such interesting human and ethical questions about what it means to create life and have control over this process. This, combined with the originality and astuteness of the treatment and tone, convinced us that this series had the potential to travel. After what everyone has been through, I think we need some real, relatable human stories told with both emotional earnestness and touches of humour and lightness!" 

The series is set to premiere on Nent Group’s streaming service Viaplay in 2022.

The production is currently underway in Oslo, using fully environmentally sustainable practices.