Nordic Series rule at Berlinale Series

Both Scherfig’s The Shift produced by Creative Alliance for TV2 Denmark, and Ella Lemhagen’s Lust, produced by Miso Film Sweden for HBO Max, are having their world premiere at the 8^th Berlinale Series, to be held fully-online during the European Film Market (February 10-17).

Oscar-nominated Danish writer/director Scherfig is an habitué of the Berlinale. Her breakthrough movie Italian for Beginners won the Silver Bear 2001, An Education screened at the Berlinale Special 2009 and her latest English language feature The Kindness of Strangers was the festival’s opening film in 2019.

The hospital drama The Shift will be platformed in Berlin hot on the heels of its industry preview in Göteborg, where it will compete for the Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize-Best Nordic Screenplay (CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.)

In the series, Sofie Gråbøl stars as midwife Ella who runs a maternity ward in Denmark. Co-stars include Pål Sverre Hagen, Marijana Jankovic, Sara Hjort Ditlevsen, Afshin Firouzi, and Mattias Nordkvist. The series is handled globally by Beta Film, outside the Nordic region.

Read our story about the making of the series: CLICK HERE.

Swedish director Ella Lemhagen is also a Berlinale regular. She won the Crystal Bear 2000 for Tsatsiki, Mum and the Policeman and competed again at the Generation section in 2011 with The Crown Jewels, starring Alicia Vikander.

Lust (8x30’) is a daring comedy drama toplining Sofia Helin, Anja Lundqvist, Julia Dufvenius and Elin Klinga as four women over 40, struggling to keep their libidos alive. Frans Milisic Wiklund wrote the screenplay based on an idea and in close collaboration with Helin, Lundqvist, Dufvenius and Åsa Kalmér.

Meanwile the Icelandic crime show Black Sands directed by Baldvin Z (Life in a Fishbowl, Case) will screen as an international premiere in Berlin, following its premiere December 25 on Channel 2 Iceland.

The story follows detective Anita (Aldís Amah Hamilton) who is forced to leave Reykjavik for her hometown situated in Iceland's striking black sands to investigate the death of a tourist. The show was co-created by Amah Hamilton, Ragnar Jónsson, Andri Óttarsson and Baldvin Z for Glassriver. All3Media handles global distribution.

The European Film Market’s Co-Pro Series programme will soon be announced.