The latest Nordic drama to hit the UK will be the Norwegian Mammon which is being shown on More 4. The series, comprising six episodes, begins on Friday March 28 at 9pm.
From the More 4 website:
An intricate and compelling thriller about greed and the murky underbelly of finance, politics and journalism, Mammon follows six days in the life of uncompromising journalist Peter Verås who uncovers evidence of financial fraud involving Norway's elite.
Episode 1 - The Sacrifice
Journalist Peter Verås receives a tip from an anonymous source about a scandal in the financial world.
The crushing evidence incriminates his own brother, a senior director in one of Norway's leading finance companies.
In spite of the family connection, Peter decides to let the newspaper go ahead and publish the story, and the disclosure has huge consequences for his brother.
Subsequently, economic crime investigator Vibeke reveals some surprising information to Peter, and the hunt for the criminals begins...
So glad to find your blog when I googled "Mammon" - its great you're covering Nordic series from BBC too.
ReplyDeleteI viewed this "Mammon" in the Channel 4 player at 4od and I'm sorry to say, but it felt like something was wrong, compared to viewing, say, "The Bridge" on the BBC iplayer.
Somehow it didn't seem easy to watch the action and read the sub-titles at the same time - something which I found effortless on the BBC iplayer.
It may be something to do with the size of the sub-title letters, which seemed rather small.
It may be to do with the relative width and length of the video viewing screen.
Anyway, it felt less than ideal, and more of an effort than I'm used to.
When I read the blurb on the Channel 4 website I immediately thought:
"How did the BBC let this one escape?"
but having viewed the first episode I think I can see why, given my misgivings outlined above.
On reflection, if I had to tell a friend the story that has unfolded so far, it is pretty amazing, and would presumably therefore make a riveting read.
But on film, it somehow just seemed a hurried rush of events, trying to quickly tick-off each twist as the story unfolded at break-neck speed.
Maybe that's it - the director seemed unconcerned to get us to care about the characters. They were simply cardboard cut-outs to allow the storyline alone to unfold.
It has been useful to view this first episode of "Mammon" to make me realise the effortless class of the film-making involved in The Bridge.
In contrast this seemed like a media studies student's attempt to create Nordic crime cinema simply by having them speak Norwegian.
Despite the misgivings with the cinematography, the story itself definitely seems interesting, intricate and powerful.
Although I only realised that some time after viewing the video.