Miso Film Norway Unveils ‘Tainted’ Details, Drive to Target Youth Audiences (EXCLUSIVE)
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HAUGESUND, Norway — Miso Film Norge, the Oslo-based arm of one of the most prominent of Scandinavian production outfits whose credits include “1864,” Warrior“ and Netflix’s “The Rain,” has part lifted the curtain on its latest scripted venture, the teen revenge-thriller “Tainted.”
The TV outfit produced the 8×30 series in collaboration with Norwegian public broadcaster NRK, which will broadcast the youth-oriented drama in late October/early November of 2019.
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Miso Film, NRK and the Norwegian Film Institute covered the budget of the NOK 24m ($2.7m) series, on while U.K.-based Fremantle, Miso’s owner, is handling international sales.
Adapted by series creator Mahmona Khan from her own novel, the series follows eighteen-year-old Sumera, a Norwegian-Pakistani girl who falls victim to physical and sexual assault on her way home from work. With the help of her three closest friends, she then sets out to take vengeance on her rapist.
“This is a dark thriller for a youth audience,” says Miso Film’s Cecilie Aspenes, “and that’s something new in the Scandi market. [It might begin with] a girl falling victim to a crime, but it is not the story of her victimhood, it’s about her taking revenge and getting her life back together with the help of her friends.”
Though she could not speak of the full cast yet, the producer revealed that the show will have four adolescent female leads — three of whom of Pakistani-Norwegian origin.
“That also sets the show apart,” adds Aspenes. “The series shows Norwegian teens as they are today. We are a multicultural country, and luckily so. I think it’s nice to show that we represent a broader perspective of reality… [This, coupled with the show’s] cool, energetic style, makes ‘Tainted’ something I haven’t seen before – and neither has the target audience.”
Miso Norway has just finished production on “@Chica Chile Norway” (pictured) a coming-of-age dramedy that will be the Norwegian company’s first feature length film, and the producer was in Haugesund to present three excerpts at the festival’s New Nordic Film’s Works in Progress program.
Like her series, Aspenes film project, about a 15-year-old girl coming into adulthood while her brother serves in Afghanistan, will be aimed at the youth market. And that’s part of a pointed strategy on the producer’s part.
“It’s tough to finance a film for youth,” says Aspenes. “But my attitude is you have to try, because that audience really needs good local productions. They go to the cinemas, they do want to see films. But if we don’t make local projects, then we’ll lose them to Hollywood.”
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