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Second Wave 

Sidse Babett Knudsen in '1864' 

Gothenburg Film Festival,  TV Drama Vision 2014

Scandinavian tv-series have caught the eye of the world. After a first wave of excellent crime series, the focus now seems to shift to historical drama. Ilse van der Velden @cinema.nl visited the Gothenburg Film and TV Festival 2014 and picked some cherries.

A love triangle between two brothers and an adorable, smart girl in the idyllic nineteenth-century countryside is shattered by the war - it's a story that could take place in almost every European country. And that's what the creators of the new Danish epic 1864 are aming for: a large, European audience. Sidse Babett Knudsen from Borgen plays one of the lead roles, Ole Bornedal wrote the script and directs.

With a budget of 23 million euro it's the most expensive Danish production ever, funded by a number of Scandinavian countries, ARTE and the Czech Republic, and released both as an 8-part TV series and as a feature film to attain more viewers and publicity. We'll see that more often in the future, as the boundaries between film and television are fading. Think of Jane Campion's Top of the Lake, which won an Emmy for best camerawork. Viewers nowadays expect quality of both their films ánd their tv series. And so they should.

1864 is gripping drama with impressive mass scenes and images that last - although we do hope the number of slowmotion scenes with people running on the battlefield stays limited. The fragment we saw, was screened January 31st in Gothenburg during TV Drama Vision 2014, a day of exploring new series from Finland  Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

The quality was remarkably high. Instead of crime the emphasis now seems to be on historical drama. The Oscar nomination for the film A Royal Affair,  shown in 80 countries, could well turn out to be prophetic: like in crime, in historic drama too the Danes play in the premier league.

On the Norway set of The Heavy Water War

Most impressive, both visually and in every other aspect, was ​​The Heavy Water War. Again an expensive co - production ( Norway, Sweden and Denmark ) on a historical subject. Here, it's about the attempt of the Nazis to create the atomic bomb. It stranded in, of all places, Norway, in an heroic act of sabotage. Who knew? But now we do, and we want to see more. As it happens, Danny Boyle is currently working on a similar series. It's amazing that after 60 years there still are new, thrilling stories to tell about the Second World War.

These co-productions are a smart move. It means big budgets, so you can actually compete internationally, even with the giants such as Netflix and HBO.

Last but not least, there's Welcome to Sweden, a comedy by Amy Poehler's brother. Greg Poehler moved to Sweden a few years ago and used his newbie-confusion first for his stand-up comedy routine, than for his script. Thanks to his famous surname he got Lena Olin (Chocolat), Patrick Duffy (Dallas) en Ileana Douglas to co-star and cameo. Welcome to Sweden has been sold to good old NBC where it will fit just fine. Like his sister, Greg Poehler has a natural gift for comedy and he maximally exploits the differences between them funny Swedish and his own loose, noisy Americanness.

In the fragment shown, his father in law stands before him naked in the sauna - enfin. Think Meet the Parents. Not bad at all. 'Real and sweet', is what Poehler wanted it to be he said in Gothenborg. After a full day of serious business his pitch was funny and relaxed.
It had that one ingredient you can only find in America: pazazz.