REinvent International Sales has secured global rights to “Vigdís,” the next big Icelandic TV show from the talent-driven shingle Vesturport and local public broadcaster RÚV, after the 2021 Series Mania winning show “Blackport.” Filming is due to start this fall.
As announced in Variety, the four-part series, co-penned by Björg Magnúsdóttir (“The Minister”) and Ágústa M. Ólafsdóttir, chronicles the inspiring true story of Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Iceland’s former president and the world’s first woman democratically elected head of state.
Created in full cooperation with Finnbogadóttir, the show centres on the young woman’s transformation from a teenager to a single working mother who defies the nation’s patriarchal society and her election as president in 1980.
Vesturport is now fully producing, with Rakel Gardarsdóttir serving as producer together with Ólafsdóttir.
Versatile actor, director, producer Björn Hlynur Haraldsson (seen in “Fortitude”, “The Borgias”, “Lamb”), will be directing, alongside Tinna Hrafnsdóttir (“Quake”), while seasoned actor Nína Dogg Filippusdóttir, one of Vesturport’s founding members with Haraldsson, will take on the coveted main part.
“I was only 6 years-old when Vigdís got elected and I was 22 when she stepped down, so you can say that all of my youth, I had this strong female role model in front of me,” noted Filippusdóttir, credited for “The Valhalla Murders” and recently named best actress at the local Edda awards for “Blackport.”
“I got Vigdís’ biography as a Christmas gift in 2009, in the middle of a very dark time here in Iceland due to the financial crisis. It was such an inspiring story that gave me a vision on how even if things seem hopeless, there is always a way forward,” said Vesturport’s Gardarsdóttir who came up with the idea for the show.
She went on: “It is a good reminder that all of us have to fight our own battles and desires and often the solutions are just around the corner. You just have to follow your heart. Even if you want to change the law, the system, the world or yourself. This story made me believe that the individual has a voice and the power. We just have to be reminded of it, and that is what the story of Vigdís truly does.”
For Haraldsson, beyond Finnbogadóttir’s exceptional status and imprint on Iceland’s society and politics, her life experience has “drama with all its colours that a TV series needs.” “Vigdís’ story is a universal saga of hope and disappointment. A life story anyone can relate to,” he pointed out.
Skarphéðinn Guðmundsson, head of TV and program director at RÚV, said Iceland’s pubcaster commissioned the show at an unusually early stage, based on the creatives’ pedigree and the “important story” that should make “Vigdis” “a ground-breaking drama project.”
Co-financiers attached so far include the Icelandic Film Centre, Iceland’s 35% reimbursement scheme, public broadcasters DR in Denmark, NRK in Norway, Yle in Finland, SVT in Sweden, and Copenhagen-based REinvent, handling international sales.
“We are extremely proud to be representing “Vigdís,” Some stories just need to be told and “Vigdís” is certainly one of them. We are sure the series will find a great audience internationally,” said REinvent’s sales and marketing director Helene Aurø who will be pre-selling the Icelandic premium show at next week’s MipTV trade fair in Cannes.
“Vigdís” is REinvent’s second major biopic series of a distinguished and inspiring Nordic female political leader, together with NRK’s “Power Play”(“Makta”), which turns on Norway’s first female Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Bruntland. The Norwegian series will world premiere in Canneseries’ main competition.
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