Copenhagen-based DR Sales has boarded the thought-provoking youth series “Get a Life” (“Stadig ikke død”) produced by one of Denmark’s longest running shingles, Nimbus Film, credited for the cult series “The Bridge” and last year’s biggest Danish movie hit “A Lucky Man”.
The seven-part YA series, helmed by Daniel Kragh Jacobsen (“The Summerdahl Murders”) premiered on the Danish pubcaster’s streamer DR TV Jan. 20.
The life-affirming “Get a Life” was created by up-and-coming French-Danish scribe Emma le Marc who developed it as part of the Series Mania-UGC Writing Campus. Toplining the show are rising talents Danish Alvilda Lyneborg Lassen (“Darkness Those Who Kill”), Albert Rosin Harson (“Pulse”) and Malaika Berenth Mosendane (“Chosen”, “The New Nurses”).
The show turns on the nihilist 16-year-old Helga who feels she is ready to die. However, finding the “perfect” way to commit suicide isn’t an easy task. While trying to find the perfect way to end her life, she develops new friendships and perhaps also reasons to keep on living.
Commenting on the sensitive topic of suicide, Nimbus Film producer Jasmine Hermann Naghizadeh said the creatives’ vision from the inception was to deliver a “reverse suicide story,” focusing “not on a character’s downward spiral into darkness, as experienced many times before in YA scripted content, but instead clearly showing from the start that this is a story about finding reasons to live. And pulling yourself out of those dark thoughts,” she explained.
“We felt that there was a real need for stories that handled the theme with care and respect,” Hermann Naghizadeh continued. “Hopefully, this universal theme, combined with the dark dramedy feel and quirky characters, will ensure that ‘Get A Life’ can travel outside of Denmark as well,” she said.For Pernille Munk Skydsgaard, the newly appointed head of sales at DR Sales, “‘Get a Life’ is truly a gem.” “It is brave, authentic, and unfortunately highly relevant, embracing challenging themes such as suicide, the feeling of being excluded and loneliness. But above all, this high-school arena series is about friendship and hope, and how connecting with other people can bring light, even at the darkest moments,” said the sales executive who looks forward to bringing the show to an international audience.
“Get a Life” is being flagged within DR Sales’ “Next Generation” strand, next to “Everything You Love,” which snagged the Student Award for best short form at the latest Canneseries, and the crime drama “Nordland ’99,” selected for the forthcoming Berlinale Series Market Selects showcase.
At this week’s Göteborg TV Drama Vision confab, which runs Feb. 1-2, DR Sales is repping DR Drama’s hit period drama “Carmen Curlers,”, and the pubcaster’s next event show “Prisoner,” toplining Danish stars Sofie Gråbøl (“The Killing,” “The Shift”) and David Dencik (“Chernobyl”, “The Chestnut Man”).
“Get a Life” is part of Nimbus Film’s recent push into long-form scripted content, next to its core movie focus. The Newen Studios part-owned prodco recently acquired a stake in Denmark’s Tall and Small, headed by “The Rain” producer Christian Potalivo and co-creator Jannik Tai Mosholt.
