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NORDIC NOIR

NORDIC NOIR

Lisbeth Salander fans slam firm’s Millennium ad

Furious fans of the Millennium trilogy have vented their anger on social media after a Swedish asset management firm used Nordic Noir heroine Lisbeth Salander in one of their adverts.

Lisbeth Salander fans slam firm's Millennium ad
Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander in 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'. Photo: AP Photo/Sony, Columbia Pictures, Merrick Morton

Moggliden AB, a company run by late Swedish crime writer Stieg Larsson's father and younger brother, recently became part-owners of asset management firm Placerum. The Umeå-based business celebrates this in a new advert, stating “Stieg Larsson's heirs chose us”.

In a video published on its website it also gives one of its staff members a complete makeover to turn her into moody hacker-cum-detective heroine Lisbeth Salander.

But the strange tribute to the main character in Larsson's Millennium series have rubbed some fans up the wrong way.

“Tasteful ad,” is one person's sarcastic response on Twitter.

“The probability that socialist, feminist, anti-racist Stieg would give his money here has to be considered somewhat low,” writes another.

The company itself seems to have anticipated the criticism, because it underlines in a statement on its website that Larsson's heirs have given their permission to use the author's characters in the short video clip and adverts published in Swedish media.

“They simply want to use Stieg's own fictional character to manage his legacy in a good way. If the campaign successfully generates more revenue it will lead to the growth of invested capital. And then, by extension, more money can be handed out to the issues Stieg wanted to support,” said Placerum chief executive Anders Ledin.

“Lisbeth Salander has already been used in massive campaigns to sell books and movies; the idea now is to, a bit like a refund, utilize that glow to develop the heritage the Millennium trilogy has created.”

Meanwhile, Eva Gabrielsson, who lost a bitter battle with Larsson's family to manage her late partner's work and strongly criticized a recently published fourth Millennium sequel, feels the advert runs counter to the anti-capitalist message in his novels.

“I don't think you should use Salander in any advert campaigns for companies. It's a bit surprising. (…) The novels are the heritage, not the money,” she told the Metro newspaper.

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Danish shows take TV world by storm

With original boundary-breaking content, thrilling plots and charismatic actors, Danish television series have captivated audiences worldwide in recent years.

Danish shows take TV world by storm
Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen plays the lead role in Ride Upon The Storm (Herrens Veje). Photo: Mads Joakim Rimer Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The latest show to hit the small screen is “Ride Upon the Storm” (Danish title: Herrens Veje), which is being distributed in almost 80 countries with a debut later this month in Britain, where it will be broadcast on Channel 4 by the station’s foreign language arm Walter Presents from January 28th.

The new drama was created by Adam Price, the BAFTA winner behind the acclaimed drama “Borgen”, which followed the political and personal tribulations of a Danish woman prime minister.

Danish shows, with both exoticism and gritty realism, have quickly soared in popularity beyond their initial local Scandinavian viewership, Pia Jensen, an Aarhus University communications associate professor specialising in television series, told AFP.

Long known for the Nordic noir crime genre, the big international breakthrough for Danish shows came with “The Killing”, a hard-hitting series following a Copenhagen female cop's investigations.

Then came crime thriller “The Bridge” in 2011.

The Nordic noir genre has proven so popular that its aesthetic and themes are now being replicated beyond Scandinavia's borders, with shows such as “Shetland” and “Broadchurch” made in Britain, Jensen said.

For foreign audiences, Denmark as it is shown on television is “an exotic society, something to aspire to because of the welfare state and the strong women characters”, she said, referring also to the 2010 hit “Borgen”.

She added, clearly amused, that it's “as if Denmark is the fantasy land of gender equality”.

Paradoxically, in this almost utopian world, the characters are “normal” people with whom audiences can identify, according to Jensen.

But now Danish TV series have moved beyond Nordic noir.

“Ride Upon the Storm” is a character-led drama about faith and a family of Danish priests, dominated by Johannes Krogh, a tempestuous God-like father battling numerous demons.

Actor Lars Mikkelsen, known from “The Killing” and his role as the Russian president in Netflix's “House of Cards”, plays Johannes, a role for which he won an International Emmy in November.

Mikkelsen “has set new standards for the portrayal of a main character in a TV series”, the show's creator Adam Price told AFP.

Johannes “is the 10th generation of priests, it's a huge burden that haunts him and he lets it haunt his sons too”.

His eldest son Christian is lost and at odds with the family and society, while younger son August is married and following in his father's priesthood footsteps before becoming a chaplain for troops stationed in Afghanistan.

“In the Bible, you have lots of stories of fathers and sons and brothers. That was the perfect ground to tell (a story) about masculine relationships, the competitive gene between men in a family,” Price said.

Elements from “Borgen” can be seen in Price's new venture: the efficient prime minister Birgitte Nyborg and Johannes Krogh, who is headed for the top as Bishop of Copenhagen, are both characters passionate about their work.

“But Johannes reacts differently than Birgitte (does) because his ambition is not within the world of politics, but with a more supernatural power,” Price said.

Thoughts on faith, religion and spirituality are mixed with a complex study of family.

“Religion is sometimes something imposed, as authority can be imposed on our children in a family. And both are dealt with in 'Ride Upon the Storm',” he said.

Price is currently working on “Ragnarok” for Netflix, a six-part Norwegian coming-of-age drama based on Norse mythology but set in a modern-day high school.

The second season of “Ride Upon the Storm” just wrapped up on Danish public television DR, which produced the series, and had around 500,000 viewers.

“Danish producers are mainly thinking of a Danish audience. It has to stay relevant to the Danish public and that's why DR keeps experimenting,” Jensen said.

“Some of the shows will travel and some won't.”

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