In the UK, Nordic Noir fans could be forgiven for thinking 2022 is going to be a great year as Walter Presents kicks off with a pan-Scandinavian season of new drama series on Channel Four
Walter Presents launched January 2016 in the U.K.. Dedicated to showcasing award winning foreign language drama, the service is named after its curator, Walter Iuzzolino, a passionate drama fan as dedicated followers of Nordic Noir drama series on Channel 4 and All 4 in the U.K. will recognise. As a special treat for the long dark evenings of the Winter months, Walter serves up a “Scandi season” with new quality series from Norway, Denmark and Sweden. First up is the Norwegian eight-episodes crime series Outlier, filmed in Norway’s scenic Troms and Finnmark regions from July 2020.
Here’s the set up: Teenager Elle Jannok walks home from a party in Kautokeino (note: at the heart of Sapmi, the Sami nation, the Norwegian municipality Kautokeino has many Sami residents and most people here have Sami as their first language) when she discovers a mobile phone lying on the side of the road, ringing. The voice on the other end of the line asks for Sofie, before the connection cuts out. A few days later, in a village several hours away, the police make the grim discovery of the body of nineteen-year-old Sofie in a caravan. In London Maja Angell is researching serial killers for her dissertation when she hears about the murder case from her home county. She defies all advice, leaves the university and travels north with a message for the local police: you have charged the wrong guy for the murder. Maja is met with opposition from the police who are proud to have solved the case, but eventually their doubt begins to show. Slowly but surely, Maja becomes involved in the investigation, but the answer may lie closer to home than she’d imagined.
From the first episode, it is clear that this is classic Nordic Noir with Northern landscapes and locations playing significant roles and with a strong female lead – but it is also exciting to see in this series a great example of the growing interest in less known Nordic cultures such as the Sami.
First episode launches on Channel 4, Sunday 9 January and the boxset is available on Walter Presents via ALL 4 from Friday 7th January 2022.
Future series in Walter Presents’ Scandi season are the Danish drama Cry Wolf (launch 30 January), and the Swedish series The Truth Will Out (launch 11th February) and Snow Angels (launch 13th March).
Nordic Noir: The Scandinavian Crime Book Club 