The star of a major new Scandinavian drama which made its world debut at MIPCOPM Tuesday evening has described how the personal connections she made with its powerful social insights led her to take on the role.
Speaking to MIPCOM News, Izabella Scorupco, who stars in the upcoming Hidden series, said that the show’s central messages about loneliness and isolation in society are “symbolic of so much about the modern world”.
The urban fantasy drama features a secretive clan of ‘Hiddens’ who possess special powers but live within modern-day Swedish society, indistinguishable from anyone else. Each of them has had their powers revealed to them after suffering a trauma in their former lives, died, been ‘reborn’ and joined the mysterious group.
Scorupco plays one of the most powerful members of the group – a former police officer and boxer who had suffered from severe depression – but who now acts as a mentor and guiding hand to people coming to terms with their new-found abilities.
She said that while the series conforms to traits of the urban fantasy genre, it is also a commentary on the ways in which people who suffer from hidden traumas can be left feeling isolated, precarious, and prone to sliding into a vicious cycle of homelessness and exile from society.
“There are so many things we don’t understand about people who are homelessness,” she said. “Often the reason people who end up homeless is because they have suffered from some trauma, but they are left alone. In the show the Hidden people find themselves in a community within a community; it’s a healing experience.”
Produced by pan-Scandinavian company Yellow Bird, Hidden will make its debut in the new year on Nordic streaming service Viaplay and Swedish broadcaster TV3. Banijay Group, the parent company of Yellow Bird and Banijay Rights, which is handling the distribution side, has chosen MIPCOM to launch the series to the international markets.
“It’s very exciting at the moment,” Scorupco said. “There’s a very special buzz around this that I don’t think I’ve experienced before.”
This and more in the MIPCOM News Issue four, out October 18. This article was written by Benedict Cooper and edited for MIPBlog.
