Transport leads Series Mania Nordic competition slate

More than 55 series - out of 331 submissions - from 46 countries will be showcased at Lille’s major international TV drama festival Series Mania (March 18-25), set to unspool both onsite and online, only six months after its previous edition, which was pushed to late August due to the pandemic.

“Organisation has been a balancing act for the teams”, acknowledged Rodolphe Belmer, president of Series Mania and general director Laurence Herszberg. Discussing trends, the organisers underlined overriding themes about current events or history, and the numerous shows from women showrunners, with nearly half of them written by women.

The Finnish series Transport set to world premiere at the prestigious international competition alongside eight other premium TV series, perfectly link up with Series Mania’s general trends, with its topical subject of money laundering and food fraud across Europe, created and written by director Auli Mantila. The latter was just nominated for this year’s Nordisk Film & TV Fond Prize for Best Screenplay of a Nordic TV series, presented in Göteborg.

Speaking about the selection of Yle’s crime drama for Series Mania, producer Miia Havisto of Tekele Productions said: “We are eager to show our series at Series Mania which is a great place to start connecting with our audiences. It has been a huge endeavour by a strong and almost all-female lead operation, including Auli Mantila as the writer and director and the main characters Emmi Parviainen, Pirkko Hämäläinen, Maria Heiskanen and us producers and business owners both at Tekele in Finland and Jonnydepony in Belgium. I love all these great women who made it happen with their insight and energy and celebrate that already now.”

The 8x50’ crime drama backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond is due to premiere on Yle March 25. REinvent handles world sales. Read our interview with Auli Mantila.

The jury of the International Competition - with a president yet to be named - comprises German actor Christian Berkel (Downfall), Franco-Belgian actress Cécile de France (The Young Pope), Israeli actress Shira Haas (Unorthodox), Turkish creator/director Berkun Oya (Bir Baskadir), and French singer/songwriter Yseult.

Meanwhile the International Panorama competition will showcase 13 series including the Swedish crime drama The Dark Heart directed by The Guilty’s Gustav Möller. The premium show inspired by the true story of a Missing People volunteer who investigates and eventually solves a high-profile murder, stars Gustav Lindh (Queen of Hearts) and Clara Christiansson Drake (Gösta).The FLX production just premiered on discovery + and Kanal 5 in Sweden February 9. REinvent handles sales.

Making its international premiere at the Short Form Competition is the Danish crime series Outlaw (Fredløs) directed by Neon Heart ‘s Laurits Flensted-Jensen. The 8x15’ series based on true events, follows a young man’s fight to find his place in society after having spent time in jail. The show produced by Strong Productions and Splay One just won Best Short series and Best TV Actor (Besir Zeciri) at the recent Danish Robert Awards. It premiered on DR3 last September. DR Sales handles sales.

The Comedy Competition section takes in six series including TV2 Norway’s Kasko. Stand-up comedian Jonis Josef is co-creator with director Mikael Samuelsen. The show tells of party-animal Jamal (played by Jonias Josef) who lands a job as an investigator in an insurance company. Torn between the two worlds, he has to decide who it really wants to be. The series premieres on TV2 and TV 2 Play February 26.
To see the trailer: CLICK HERE.

Series Mania has also selected for its Special screenings the remastered version of Lars von Trier’s 1994 cult series The Kingdom.

Series Mania Forum
The must attend industry sidebar Series Mania Forum (March 22-24) will be focusing this year on the effects of the concentration of EU audiovisual groups on creativity and the impact of global viewers’ appetite for series in their original format and language.

As a pièce de résistance, the popular Co-Pro-Pitching session will be unveiling 16 international projects, selected from 330 submissions from 56 different countries.

Among the projects vying for the €50,000 Best Pitch are the following Nordic titles:

• A Boy Disappears (6x50’) produced by Denmark’s Live Hide for Nimbus Film, is written by rising talent Julie Budtz Sørensen (The Rain).
  
  The story deals with family, mistrust, injustice, and fighting for what is right. Mona (35), a dedicated family lawyer, is asked to handle the case of a man - Nabil, accused of having secretly sent his 13-year old son Issa against his will, on an educational trip to Tunisia. Nabil claims not to know where his son is but nonetheless he is brought to court. The case will take a heavy toll on Mona’s personal and professional life.
• The Winter Pack (6x45’) is produced by Moa Westeson, Anni Fernandez and Cindy Hanson for Scandinavian outfit Nevis Productions.
  
  Multi-awarded seasoned director Charlotte Brändström (The Unlikely Murderer) will be directing from a screenplay by Christoffer Örnfelt (The Chestnut Man).
  
  The high-end action thriller is based on the book ‘Vinterpacket’ by Jacob Lindfors, which follows an elite unit of Sweden’s Special Forces, as it trains and executes high-stakes secret missions in Sweden. Newly graduated Special Forces soldier Kassian is thrust into a dangerous mission: to hunt down a gang of criminals called ‘The Winter Pack’, who are launching cyber and military attacks on civilian and military targets.
  
  According to the production notes, the first TV drama set to dramatise Sweden’s Special Forces (SOG) will uncover both the camaraderie and rivalry within the Forces, as well as the physical, psychological and spiritual toll it takes on these elite soldiers.