The show-running debut of Icelandic actress-turned director Tinna Hrafnsdóttir, is due to premiere on the streaming platform Síminn in the fall 2023.
The major global distributor Red Arrow Studios International has picked up sales outside the Nordics and Benelux - handled by Lumiere.
Seasoned actress Tinna Hrafnsdóttir (The Minister, The Vallhalla Murders) who made her directorial debut with Quake (2021) is attached as creator, director, and co-writer, with Ottó Geir Borg (The Valhalla Murders, A Letter from Helga) and Tyrfingur Tyrfingsson (Wild Game). The versatile Hrafnsdóttir also stars in one of the title roles and produces, alongside Kidda Rokk (Thin Ice) and Gudny Gudjonsdóttir for Polarama Productions.
The series ordered by the major platform Síminn, was co-produced by Iceland’s Freyja Filmworks, Projects Production, and Belgium’s Lunanime, with support from the Icelandic Film Centre, Creative Europe, Screen Flanders and Iceland’s reimbursement scheme.
The character-driven drama is set against the backdrop of the booming tourism industry in Iceland.
When three very different, middle-aged siblings inherit their parents’ successful whale watching company and beautiful summerhouse, tensions arise between them. The eldest sister Arndís, younger sister Rúna and their brother Elvar have all difficult relations with their charismatic mother - the highly-respected novelist Lóa (70). When their father passes away, each sibling has its own motivation to gain as much as possible from the inheritance. But their dominating mother gets in the way.
In the title roles are Hanna María Karlsdóttir (Black Sands), Pálmi Gestsson (Trapped, Agnes Joy), Tinna Hrafnsdóttir, Vignir Rafn Valþórsson (Blackport, Trapped) and Þuríður Blær Jóhannesdóttir (The Minister, The Flatey Enigma).
Hrafnsdóttir who mentions Ride Upon the Storm, Succession and Bloodline as references, says the core of the story is blood ties. “My drive as a storyteller is to dive into the core of who we are, the bonds that shape us the most, the complications that blood or family relations can cause,” she said.
The idea for the show was loosely based on a traumatic personal experience: the burning of a summerhouse built by her grandparents, where she used to spend time as a child. Hrafnsdóttir said this incident helped her provide the frame for the drama, but the story and characters remains purely fictional.
The show-runner said the both Lumiere Lunanime and Red Arrow Studios International boarded the project at the financing stage. “They really liked the scripts and saw global potential in it, as the story not only draws a clear picture of two different generations, but also gives a glimpse into the Icelandic tourist ‘goldrush’ which rose shortly after the banking crisis, and gave our small nation of 350,000 people an opportunity to rise after the downfall,” Hrafnsdóttir explained.
The series is currently in the editing stage, with a delivery set for this fall.
Earlier Icelandic series handled by Red Arrow Studios International include the crime dramas Stella Blomkvist and Case.
Descendants will be pitched by its creative team on Wednesday in Reykjavik as part of the Stockfish Film Festival’s works in progress session.
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