Nordic nets buy Sagafilm’s Enigma

Scandinavian pubcasters YLE in Finland, Sweden’s SVT, NRK in Norway and Denmark’s DR have pre-bought an Icelandic drama based on a book by Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson.

Sagafilm’s The Flatey Enigma is based on Viktor Arnar Ingolfsson’s novel

The Flatey Enigma (4×52′) is from Icelandic prodco Sagafilm and is being coproduced with Reykjavik Films for local pubcaster RÚV.

It is based on Ingolfsson’s eponymous novel, which has been published across Europe and was nominated for the Glass Key Award for Nordic crime fiction.

The story, set in 1970, follows a professor of Nordic studies who is accused of murder and must solve a riddle in a medieval manuscript to prove her innocence.

“We are thrilled to have all Scandinavian public broadcasters buying into this project. It shows the tremendous appetite for Icelandic TV drama internationally,” said Hilmar Sigurðsson, CEO of Sagafilm.

Iceland’s RVK Studios recently signed a deal with UK producer Buccaneer Media to develop English-language drama The Reykjavik Confessions. The same company is behind Trapped, which is set for a second season at RÚV after Dynamic Television sold the show to a string of broadcasters around the world.

Sagafilm was behind shows including CASE for Netflix, drama series Press (The Press) and comedy series Næturvaktin (The Night Shift), as well as BBC factual series The Show of Shows for documentary strand BBC Storyville, SVT, YLE and RÚV.

In 2015, it set up a Swedish arm to develop projects with international partners and last year acquired animation and live-action firm GunHil, prompting a reshuffle that saw Sigurðsson replace Sagafilm’s former CEO Guðný Guðjónsdóttir.