10 episodes of the occupation – BBC

Norwegian television channel TV2 show TV series “occupied” in which Russia at the request of the EU take over the oil fields of Norway. The Russian Embassy has expressed regret over the choice of a topic in the year of the 70th anniversary of the Victory.

In the near future to power in Norway comes the party of radical environmentalists, whose government will cease production of oil and gas due to the their risk to the environment. And the international community will ask Russia to occupy the Scandinavian countries, to ensure an uninterrupted supply of energy to the EU. The invasion left the country: the Russian army is interested only in mineral deposits, and the everyday life of Norwegians continued to go more or less normally. Occupants even preserved the monarchy and the constitution.

In September this year on the Norwegian channel TV2, one of the largest private broadcasters of the country, the premiere 10-episode TV series “The occupied» (Okkupert).

The plot of the series came up with a writer, author of crime novels Jo Nesbø, whose books were regularly translated into Russian. However, in the final version included only a few ideas Nesbo and the authors of the final version became Karianna screenwriter and director Erik Lund Shёldberg (“Insomnia”, “Prozac Nation”).

«occupied» set a new record in the Norwegian serialostroenii – its production has been spent 80 million kroner ($ 10 million).

The budget of the previous record holder – the mini-series “Wealth» (Mammon) – amounted to only 36 million kronor ($ 4.3 million).

Of course, draw a blockbuster alone Norwegian channel could not – the production of “occupied” has joined the Swedish company Yellow Bird, who rented detective series “Wallander» (Wallander) and made movies of the trilogy “Millennium” Swedish writer Stieg Larsson (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and its two extensions). Roles occupants in it sang German actor of Russian origin Lenn Kudryavitsky (episode in the war drama “Enemy at the Gates”) and Ingeborg Dapkunayte, heroine whose name, according to Imdb, Irina Sidorva.

The show is already sold in several European countries – the UK TV show him (traditionally loyal to the Scandinavian television films), Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

Initially, the “occupied” was supposed to take the Norwegian state television NRK; he later renounced the series, picked up the baton and TV2. After the announcement of the film in 2013, the historian Detlef Bjørn Nystad from the University of Oslo in an interview with the Russian service of “Bi-bi-si”, said that the show offends the inhabitants of the northern regions of Norway, the Soviet Union liberated in 1944.

«I am sure that the Norwegians will be shocked at the exit of this film to the screen, and relations with Russia, he obviously did not improve,” – he said. Nystad reminded that these movies filmed in the US during the “cold war” that is not quite true. Thus, the Soviet invasion of America shown in the anti-utopian action movie “Red Dawn” in 1984. However, in 2012 he released a remake of the picture (in Russia appeared under the title “Elusive”), which organized the invasion of North Korea. The Australian film “Tomorrow, When the War Began” (2010), decided not to call the aggressor.

It is interesting that the plot pilot Nesbo came up even earlier – in 2008, long before the events of last year in Ukraine and changes in relation to Russia in Europe.

Now, judging by the statements of tough US military and NATO, they consider highly probable the situation described in the series. So, in July of this year, during a hearing on the proposal for the post of head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford he described Russia as “the greatest threat to US security.” In April, the commander of NATO forces in Europe, General Philip Breedlove said that Russia is “a real threat” of European security. Neighboring Norway Sweden looking for in their territorial waters of the Russian submarine, increases military budget to a billion dollars, and strengthens the defense of the island of Gotland – as a response to the threat of seizure by Russian troops.

The Russian Embassy in Norway is surprisingly calmly reacted to the campaign “occupied.” To prepare the audience for the premiere on TV2 began last week showing fragments of the film and interviews with its creators.

«While the authors of the series diligently emphasize the fictional plot, allegedly has nothing to do with reality, we are in this the film is about the very real countries, and Russia, unfortunately, in the role of aggressor “- leads TASS comment diplomats.

In a statement, the embassy regrets that in the year of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Second World War, the authors of the series have forgotten “about the heroic contribution of the Soviet Army in the liberation of Northern Norway” and decided in the worst traditions of the “cold war” scare Norwegian the viewer non-existent threat from the East.