Benedikt Erlingson's THE DANISH WOMAN to world premiere at Series Mania
Benedikt Erlingsson, the director behind the critically acclaimed and award-winning film Woman at War, is now ready with his first TV series, which will have its world premiere in the International Panorama section at the prestigious Series Mania Festival in Lille (March 21-28).
The six-episode show is set to premiere in January 2026. International sales are handled by The Party Film Sales.
When Ditte Jensen, played by celebrated actress Trine Dyrholm, retires with honors from the Danish Secret Service, she moves into an apartment block in Reykjavik, where she plans to tend to her garden and live out her life in anonymity. But Ditte cannot stop being who she is: an elite soldier and a warrior. Soon, the apartment building becomes a battlefield for a better world. With her deep-rooted sense of justice, she sees her neighbors' problems and feels compelled to help - whether they want her help or not.
“Ditte is a ‘helper' - much like the Western empire that brought her up - and she behaves like an empire: a well-meaning but militant state, focused on spreading its ideology, even through brute force if necessary,“ says Benedikt Erlingsson in a press release. „And here I hope that we, the Nordic, European and International audience, will see ourselves. Because in some way we are like Ditte, the Danish woman. We live in a culture that accepts Machiavelli's sentiment: ‘The end justifies the means ‘.
It's an underlying creed of the foreign policy of our humanistic Europe and our Western Empires. It is the doctrine of war in general, despite all treaties and human rights declarations. And despite everything, we somehow accept this ‘sacrifice'. Because ‘our' intentions are always ‘good' - or at least ‘understandable'. Our armed forces may have done wrong, but for all the right reasons. The underlying question is therefore: Can we build a healthy society and a better world with this conquering warrior mentality?
My aim as a storyteller is always to entertain, entertain and entertain - but also, perhaps on a deeper level, to reveal to the audience a ‘bigger picture' - a picture where, if you look closely enough, you might find yourself staring back.”
Trine Dyrholm (The Girl with the Needle, Rematch, Queen of hearts, The Legacy, A Royal Affaire, In a Better World, Festen) is joined by a cast of renowned actors from Iceland, Denmark and Sweden.
The Danish Woman is is written by Benedikt Erlingsson and Olafur Egill Egilsson and directed by Benedikt Erlingsson. The series is produced by France's Slot Machine, Marianne Slot and Carine Leblanc in coproduction with Iceland's Gullslottid and Zik Zak Filmworks in association with RÚV, ZDF/ARTE, DR, YLE, TRUENORTH, Wild Bunch Germany, Jón Pálmason, Sigurdur G. Pálmason with support of the Icelandic Film Centre, Nordisk Film & TV Fond and co-funded by The European Union.