Articles about RUV
Meeting The Danish Woman
Writer-director Benedikt Erlingsson discusses making Icelandic series Danska Konan (The Danish Woman), partnering with “extraordinary talent” Trine Dyrholm as the titular character, and why he didn’t want to Save the Cat.
Life of a legend
Vigdís star Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir and producer Rakel Garðarsdóttir outline why they spent a decade trying to make this scripted biopic of Iceland’s first female president and reveal how they overcame the creative challenges posed by making the period drama.
Main character energy
Writing partners Arnór Pálmi Arnarson and Jóhanna Friðrika Sæmundsdóttir explain how finding the right protagonist unlocked their Icelandic dramedy Húsó (The School of Housewives), about a young mother who attends housekeeping classes in a bid to regain custody of her daughter.
Staying power
Filmed in impossibly challenging conditions, Those Who Stayed tells six stories of people who remained in Kyiv after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. DQ speaks to the producers and filmmakers behind the series to find out why and how they did it.
Piecing together Fractures
Vitjanir (Fractures) star Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir and producer Hörður Rúnarsson speak to DQ about how themes of science and spirituality clash in this Icelandic drama about a city doctor who returns to the small village where she grew up.
Gone fishing
Gísli Örn Garðarsson, one of the creators, writers, directors and stars of Icelandic drama Blackport, speaks to DQ about why he wanted to dramatise the real-life impact of the country’s fishing quotas in the 1980s.
Making a Minister
Icelandic star Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, writer Jónas Margeir Ingólfsson and director Nanna Kristin Magnúsdóttir tell DQ about The Minister, in which an unconventional politician with a hidden health condition becomes prime minister.
Political ambitions
In Icelandic drama The Minister, an unconventional politician with a hidden health condition rises to become prime minister. Star Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, writer Jónas Margeir Ingólfsson and director Nanna Kristin Magnúsdóttir tell DQ about making the series.
Task master
For Icelandic drama Pabbahelgar (Happily Never After), Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir juggled writing, directing, producing and acting. She tells DQ how she did it.
Enigmatic TV
Icelandic mystery The Flatey Enigma steps back in time to tell the story of a woman caught up in a deadly race to solve a historical riddle that could lead to the burial place of the last Viking lord. Executive producer Kjartan Thor Thordarson explains all.
Rewriting history
James Bond screenwriters Robert Wade and Neal Purvis imagine a world in which the Nazis occupy Britain in the BBC’s adaptation of Len Deighton’s alternative-history novel SS-GB. DQ visits the set.
European dramas get backing from buyers
European dramas like Medici: Masters of Florence and Trapped are in the news this week. There also seems to be growing trend for the TV business to turn to feature film directors.
Moving mountains to make authentic Icelandic thriller
Klaus Zimmermann and Clive Bradley reveal how they kept crime thriller Trapped grounded in its Icelandic setting while navigating the tricky waters around this intricate international coproduction.