Siri Seljeseth Finds Comedy In Tragedy Below
Viaplay has announced six-part comedy drama Below (Nede), directed by Siri Seljeseth (Young & Promising) and starring Maria Austgulen (Made in Oslo) as a young woman whose life is turned upside down in just a few seconds by a devastating traffic accident.
After a night out, Fanny (Maria Austgulen) is involved in an accident that kills her best friend Kurt and leaves her paralysed from the waist down. Fanny is forced to move in with her sister, having avoided her since childhood, and longs to return to her old life in her fourth-floor apartment.
Writer, Tina Rygh, said: “I wanted to make a series about people in crisis – it’s a fruitful starting point for painful, intimate and embarrassing encounters. But Fanny doesn’t fit the template of someone who’s supposed to be grieving. In a sense she rejects the situation, at the same time as she can’t escape it.”
Director, Siri Seljeseth added: “Below offers an unsentimental view of difficult topics, with a very specific twinkle in the eye. It is fun and recognisable, while at the same time challenging our perspective on difficult things in life, such as grief, guilt and loneliness. The series is weird in the very best sense of the word, and it dares to be a little different, just like the main character Fanny.”
Below premieres on Viaplay across the Nordic region this autumn.