WHEN BORGEN GOES TO GREENLAND: CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT, LOCATION WORK, AND COLLABORATION IN BORGEN: POWER & GLORY by Anders Grønlund

Borgen is back – worldwide!

While the high-end TV series Borgen: Power & Glory (2022) has been available to Danish viewers since February 2022 on Danish public service broadcaster DR, it was not until 2 June that the new season launched on Netflix worldwide. Since then, the series has received positive reviews in the international media emphasising the darker aesthetics, geopolitical plot and the new single overarching plotline focusing on an oil discovery in Greenland. Reviews often mention the visuals as one of the successful features ,with Radio Times stating that the “series has never looked better, particularly when capturing the breathtaking vistas of Greenlandic landscapes and the natural beauty which is so passionately fought over in the series.” (Knight 2022). Interest in Greenland is central to the review in The New York Times, which critically discusses how a Danish production works with Greenlanders to create a plausible Greenlandic setting – and how the series can “help raise awareness about Denmark’s relationship with Greenland” (Abend 2022).

In this blog post, I will present an overview of the production with a focus on collaboration and the creation of a ‘plausible’ Greenlandic setting. Furthermore, in discussing how Greenland has increasingly become a location for foreign productions I put this shift into the context of recent developments in majority-minority collaboration in postcolonial settings. The blog departs from my ongoing PhD project concerning screen production in and about Greenland where Borgen: Power & Glory is one of my case studies. It is also a continuation of an earlier blog post, I co-wrote with my supervisor Eva Novrup Redvall, where we introduced the new season and compared it to the previous three. While the first was published right after the national Danish premiere, this one is written after the worldwide launch with new knowledge based on interviews with the creators, documents, and articles – and without the fear of spoiling!

Greenland themed series and the issue of location

Looking at the history of TV fiction made in and about Greenland, the total amount of productions is limited and a relatively new development in a Greenlandic context. The earliest were centred on the tradition of Christmas calendars, with productions such as the Danish Nissebanden i Grønland (DR, 1989) and the Greenlandic Avannaarsuani Nissit (KNR, 2000) – both by national public service broadcasters. Since, Greenland has only featured sporadically, a small story within another, such as UK-Australian mini-series Ice (2011), an episode of MacGyver (2016-2021), and another in the first season of Borgen (2010-2022). It is not until the 2020s that we see a sudden emergence of high-end Greenland-themed TV series, starting with Swedish-Icelandic Tunn is (Thin Ice, 2020) and this year Borgen: Power and Glory. Furthermore, it was announced in 2020 that German Constantin Film is producing a TV adaption of the bestselling Peter Høeg novel Smilla’s Sense of Snow, directed by Handmaid’s Tale director Amma Asante (Ramachandran 2020).

The use of Greenlandic locations has been problematic on TV as well as film. For various reasons – most often economical and in terms of access – films and series with Greenlandic settings have been shot elsewhere:  doubling (i.e. replaced with a similar location elsewhere) or part-doubling (i.e. as in mixing on-location footage from Greenland with footage from elsewhere) for the Greenlandic location. Thin Ice, for instance, was shot primarily in Iceland with very limited second-unit shots from Greenland and thereby a typical example of Iceland part-doubling for Greenland.

In Borgen: Power and Glory, however, all exteriors were shot in Greenland – primarily in and around the area of Ilulissat – with only interior scenes shot on sets in Denmark. With a 45 person-crew (not counting the actors) on-location for several weeks in Greenland, the production involved much more Greenlanders on- and off-screen, preparation, and collaboration than the above-mentioned productions.

In terms of the production setup, the new season is the product of the first collaboration between DR and Netflix and produced by the Danish production company SAM Productions. DR pre-sold a license to Netflix after the exclusive run on DR this spring. As such, Netflix co-financed the series in return of worldwide distribution rights. As it has been the case with other Netflix-related productions (Afilipoaie, Ioardache & Raats 2021), Borgen: Power & Glory is now marketed as a ‘Netflix Original’ outside Denmark, while DR retains distribution rights for its territory. Though the-then Head of DR Drama, Christian Rank, stressed that Netflix had no creative influence on the new season (Rank in Quistgaard 2021), it is unlikely that it would have been made in its final form without the initial financial collaboration between Netflix and DR.

Researching Greenland

As was the case with the first three seasons of Borgen, the new season is the result of extensive research, this time centred on the Greenlandic theme through various approaches such as:

• Recourse persons: A list of Greenlanders with specialised knowledge on several subjects such as Greenlandic politics, activism, geology, culture, and infrastructure.
• Reader: A Greenlandic reader was hired to read scripts with a focus on cultural aspects; from everyday perspectives such as “what do Greenlandic kids eat for breakfast” to culturally sensitive subjects such as substance abuse.
• Research trips: Among other functions, writers, producers, the conceptual director, and locations manager travelled to Greenland, to speak, for example, with local collaborators and experts, to develop the script, and scout locations.

In this way the goal was to seek not only authenticity, but to avoid obvious misrepresentations of Greenland. To overcome the obvious language barrier and secure a more authentic acting dialogue, Greenlandic personnel were affiliated in (primarily) assistant positions to the A-functions. For instance, Berda Larsen functioned as assistant director, and Nivi Pedersen, who also holds one of the main Greenlandic roles, was assistant director in post-production.

On-location

The decision to use Greenlandic locations for all exterior shots – instead of part or full doubling them with similar locations – was an essential part of creating a plausible Greenlandic setting. This location work was possible because of a collaboration with the Greenlandic production service company, Polarama Greenland, securing a local anchoring in the local communities involved and contact to indigenous filmmakers. This is especially important in terms of accommodation and transportation in a nation with expensive and challenging infrastructure. Furthermore, Polarama was essential in the casting process that is notoriously difficult in an ultrasmall nation of approximately 56,000 inhabitants.

The majority of location shooting took place in the city of Ilulissat, Greenland’s third-largest city, beautifully placed on the east coast of the Disco Bay. To ensure local anchoring, location manager Kenneth Berg worked closely with Ilulissat-based location assistant Karen Buus, who herself had prior experience working on the production, Against the Ice, but otherwise works for the tourist industry. As such, the goal was to do responsible location shooting in a small community such as Ilulissat with awareness of everyday life.

Local engagement and collaboration

As this indicates, a wide range of initiatives and collaborative actions have been made to create a plausible Greenlandic setting in the development and production of Borgen: Power & Glory. This seems more in line with the recent international focus on Indigenous voices and agency. For instance, the International Sámi Film Institute (ISFI) recently published Ofelaš – Pathfinder: Guidelines for Responsible Filmmaking with the Sámi People and Culture (2021). Based on the phrase ‘Nothing about us without us’, the guide underlines the uttermost importance of collaboration, inclusion, and respect in any production associated with Sámi culture. Here, they point out two productions as examples of ‘ethical and respectful to Sámi people collaborations’: Frozen 2 (Lee & Buck, 2019) and Sameblod (Sami Blood, Kernell, 2017). While the first had an agreement between Disney and ISFI on the use of Sámi culture and story elements, the latter had Nordisk Film hiring “20 Sámi filmmakers to join the production team in collaboration with ISFI providing direct experience for these Sámi people to be on a feature film set” (The Sámi Film & Culture Advisory Board, 2021: 7).

Similarly, the Chairman of the film industry association of Greenland, FILM.GL, Klaus Georg Hansen has commended Borgen: Power & Glory for both plot and collaboration:

The series’ plot itself shows that Greenland is allowed a seat at the table where the big nations sit. I guess it’s just symptomatic that we are not only involved in the story itself, but also in the production and are taken seriously […]. From those who have been involved in it, I know that they have had a direct opportunity to influence how a particular scene or parts of the production have been, because we have been allowed to participate. (Hansen in Nathansen & Lynge 2022, my translation)

From the evidence, Borgen: Power & Glory has done something right in its approach to plausible placemaking and feelings of co-ownership through research, location work and collaboration. While there are important critical voices against foreign screen production in Greenland, there seems to be a notion of Indigenous film industries that do not completely reject foreign activity. Instead, there is a demand for influence, cultural sensitivity and respect. Furthermore, the foreign productions can be used to further professionalise, share knowledge, and create economic growth.

Whether this is a sign of a shift in the approach to producing Greenland-related content is too early to say. Still, with demand growing for high-end content and increased interest in the Arctic and Greenland as geopolitical melting pots, we can see a way to tell local-based universal stories for international audiences. While the case of Borgen: Power & Glory is far from perfect – for example, in the lack of co-production and A-functions rather than assistant functions – it could be a step in the right direction.

 

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Anders Grønlund is PhD Fellow at the University of Copenhagen in the Department of Communication. His PhD project (2020-2023) is a study of film and television production in and about Greenland that includes a case study of Borgen: Power & Glory. He has published on topics of Greenlandic film, production and location analysis, film history, and Danish Greenland literature.

Acknowledgments: This blog post was made after group work on the PhD course “Transnational Video-on-Demand Cultures” in June 2022 hosted by Aarhus University. I thank course leader Cathrin Bengesser and the rest of the lecturers for inspiring days. Furthermore, I thank Cathrin, Janet McCabe, and Eva Novrup Redvall for reading and commenting.

 

References

Abend, Lisa. 2022. ’A Darker ‘Borgen’ Returns, and Heads to Greenland’. New York Times. 27 May 26 2022. https://nytimes.com/2022/05/26/arts/television/borgen-greenland.html

Afilipoaie, Adelaida, Catalina Iordache, and Tim Raats. 2021. ‘The ‘Netflix Original’ and What It Means for the Production of European Television Content’. Critical Studies in Television 16 (3). https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020211023318

Knight, Lewis. 2022. ‘Borgen season 4 review: Power & Glory is triumphant return for Danish drama’. Radio Times. 25 May 2022. https://radiotimes.com/tv/drama/borgen-season-4-power-glory-review/

Nathansen, Bibi, and Mads Lynge. 2022. “Film.gl-formand om Borgen: Det er en serie for os. Jeg tror, at vi kan blive rigtig stolte.” KNR. 15 February 2022. https://knr.gl/da/nyheder/filmgl-formand-om-borgen-det-er-en-serie-os-jeg-tror-vi-kan-blive-rigtig-stolte

Quistgaard, Ulrich. 2021. “Netflix-støttet sæson af Borgen får premiere i februar”. MediaWatch. 25 December 2021. https://mediawatch.dk/Medienyt/TV/article13590005.ece

Ramachandran, Naman. 2020. ‘’Handmaid’s Tale’ Director Amma Asante to Helm ‘Smilla’s Sense of Snow’ Series for Constantin’. Variety. 24 September 2020. https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/handmaids-tale-amma-asante-signs-smillas-sense-of-snow-series-1234782466/

The Sámi Film & Culture Advisory Board. 2021. Ofelaŝ – The Pathfinder. Guidelines for Responsible Filmmaking with Sámi Culture and People. Norway: International Sámi Film Institute.