The family drama Liberty produced by Karoline Leth for DR Fiction revolves around two expat families in Tanzania in the 1980s. The 5x58’ drama is based on the first book in the ‘Africa Trilogy’ written by Danish author Jakob Ejersbo who spent his childhood in Tanzania.

The established writer/director Asger Leth (Ghosts of Cité Soleil, Man on a Ledge) is head writer and Mikael Marcimain is directing.

Liberty is a humorous and brutal portrait of foreign aid emissaries whose idealism clashes with cultural differences and local resistance. The central characters are the Knudsen family from Denmark and the Larssons from Sweden. A stellar cast will soon be announced for DR Fiction’s new flagship drama set to air in 2018.

Helene Aurø, Sales and Marketing Director at DR Sales said: “There is a lot of competition from TV stations to be the first to pick up the best programmes, something we’ve noticed especially with our TV dramas. With The Legacy and Follow the Money, foreign broadcasters came up very early as pre-buyers and now they have another opportunity with Liberty.”

Besides Liberty, four other high end dramas in development will be pitched by DR Sales’s team at Cannes’ MIPTV (April 3-6).

  • Malin Fors (10x44’ or 5x90’) is a traditional Swedish crime drama produced by Unlimited Stories and Nordic Fiction for TV4. Anders Sparring is head writer. 
  • The Valhalla Murders (8x50’) is an Icelandic crime thriller created/directed/co-written by Thordur Palsson, with Margrét Örnólfsdóttir (Trapped 2, Prisoners) as head-writer. The series produced by Truenorth for RUV will start filming end of 2017. 
  • Norskov season 2 (6x42’) created again by Dunja Gry Jensen for SF Studios production Denmark/TV2. 
  • Follow the Money season 3 created by Jeppe Gjervig Gram for DR Fiction.

Also new on DR Sales’ drama slate is the Norwegian oil drama series State of Happiness (8x45’) produced by Maipo Film for NRK. Mette M. Bølstad (Nobel) is head writer and Petter Næss (Elling) directs, together with Pål Jackman.

DR Sales has also a full slate of award-winning documentaries, such as Last Men in Aleppo, The John Dalli Mystery, Land of the Free that all picked up awards at CPH:DOX, a catalogue of Icelandic programmes from RUV (from kids drama to documentaries such as the 2017 Edda Best Documentary Inside a Volcano by Sævar Gudmundsson) and new formats such as Finland’s Heroes of the Baltic Sea (YLE).

Aurø said: “Our 2017 MIPTV line up is 100% Nordic! Our ambition is to represent a large slate of very high quality content from the Nordic region, including many programmes that will air on DR, so it makes sense for us to take them in world distribution.”