France’s APC (About Premium Content) has acquired international sales rights to “Blackport,” an Icelandic political thriller set in a small fishing village and inspired by true events.
“Blackport” won the Series Mania Award at the Berlinale Co-Pro Series pitching event in 2018 and was teased at this year’s virtual TV Drama Vision, part of Sweden’s Goteborg Film Festival, the biggest film-TV event in Scandinavia, where the producers showcased footage highlighting the forthright confrontation between lead characters and a bohemian scene from a boom-time iceland.
Co-written and co-directed by Gísli Örn Garðarsson (“Ragnarök”) and Björn Hlynur Haraldsson (“The Witcher”), “Blackport” filmed during the pandemic through the summer in Reykjavik and in the Westfjords.
The series opens in the early 1980s when the fishing industry was booming in Iceland and follows a young married couple who build a small fishing empire in a village along with a group of friends, but see their livelihoods threatened when the government starts enforcing restrictive fishing quotas. Those set the friends on a bitter collision course. “Blackport” has been described as a political and family saga set against the backdrop of historical events that shaped Iceland between the 1980s and the 1990s.
One of the most awaited series to be sneak-peeked at Göteborg, “Blackport” marks the first co-production between the upscale Franco-German channel Arte and Icelandic public broadcaster RUV. The series is produced by Nana Alfredsdóttir, Örn Garðarsson and Hlynur Haraldsson at Vesturport, and co-produced by Andrew Eaton and Justin Thompson at the U.K. banner Turbine Studios. The local cast includes Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir (“Fangar”).
APC’s current roster also includes Kate Ashfield (“Born to Kill”), Finnish thriller series and Canneseries standout “Man in Room 301,” which has sold to Arte, BBC, RTBF, NOP and AMC Spain, and most recently Wowow in Japan. APC is also selling another Finnish series, the period spy thriller “Shadow Lines,” written by Katri and Kirsti Manninen. The Cold War-set show’s second season is launching in a few months.
APC is a Paris-based boutique studio headed by Emmanuelle Guilbart and Laurent Boissel. The company is active in the development, production, financing and international sales of upscale TV programs.
