‘Lilyhammer’-Like Drama ‘Torna A Surriento’ Boarded By Siminn Ahead Of Series Mania Bow

EXCLUSIVE: Icelandic streamer Siminn has boarded Torna a Surriento, a European co-production for Finland’s YLE and Italy’s RAI debuting next week at Series Mania. Furthermore, we’ve got the first word on two key castings.

Set in Finland’s Sami community, the Italian- and Northern Sami-language series is in pre-production. Finnish producer Whatevergroup is producing, with Italy’s Viola Films, Norway’s Rein Film and Iceland’s Glassriver co-producing.

The four-part show follows a gritty Neapolitan hustler, Carmine Esposito, who inherits a remote estate from his estranged late brother in Finland’s unforgiving Lapland. Accompanied by two city slicker friends, he thinks he will get a quick payday, but this quickly turns into a two-month ordeal.

Carmine finds himself at odds with the indigenous Sami community, particularly fierce reindeer herder Maren Elle and his late brother’s partner, Sunná. As tensions rise, he realizes his brother’s death may not have not been accidental and is caught between fleeing back to the comforts of Naples of staying the Arctic and finding the truth.

Finland’s Sissi Jomppanen and Norway’s Anne Magga Vigelius (My Father’s Daughter) have landed the lead Sami roles, while the Italian roles haven’t yet been revealed yet.

Guglielmo Finazzer, Dario Carraturo, Jens Martin Mienna and Aleksi Puranen are the writer-creators. Antti Kaarlela from Whatevergroup is among the producers, as are Eric Welbers and Oleg Jampolski from German production house Bravado Media. Ken Are Bongo, who is from the Sami community, is the director.

Show is set to deliver in November, with a €450,000 ($490,000) budget per episode. The show qualified for the Finnish tax incentive and received investment from the city of Inari. No distributor is attached right now.

“The small communities up in the north have been very helpful, not to forget the contribution of our Norwegian friends from Rein Film, who jumped onboard to help us with the Norwegian crew and cast and our Icelandic collaborator Glassriver, who is helping us in closing the gap,” said Whatevergroup CEO Kaarlela .”This really is a joint forces operation in culture.”

Torna a Surriento will be previewed at Series Mania in Lille, France next week as part of the first Coming Next From Sweden and Finland showcase on Tuesday morning (March 25) in the Grand Palais.

Series Mania has been a useful event for Finnish producers, with the likes of Transport, Monster and Whatevergroup’s Critical Point showcased over recent years. “Series Mania is essential for many Finnish drama producers,” said Kaarlela. “It’s where everyone gets together for a few days for a lot of meetings and naturally where a lot of deals are made. The thing that distinguishes it is in the name – it’s so good to get to focus on the series.”

The series developed after the Finnish, German and Italian co-producers met around a year ago. They had heard YLE and RAI were seeking to work together on a project, so began “tossing around ideas,” according to Kaarlela.

“Two cultures from opposite ends of Europe meet, fight, fall in love and learn to laugh and live together. Maybe it’s what Europe needs right now,” said Kaarlela.

“The Italian mindset in the scenery of Sami land creates a very quirky and distinguished atmosphere for our story. It was also wonderful to learn that, even though located at different ends of Europe, both Sami and Italian cultures share quite a few similarities, for example both being family-oriented and mothers having an especially strong role in families.”

Kaarlela admitted buyers could make the comparison with Lillehammer, the NRK drama from Norway that became Netflix’s first international acquisition back in October 2011, given the show follows a fish-out-of-water hustler in snowy Scandinavian surroundings.

“Lilyhammer is a natural comparison for Torna a Surriento, but with Sami characters and culture involved it was obvious we needed Sami input and turned to writer Jens Martin Mienna and director Ken Are Bongo and took in as much as possible from them to the story and characters. We tried not to copy anything, although all of us realize the certain similarities with Lilyhammer. 

“The market is tough everywhere,” said Kaarlela. “Money is tight and the amount of commissions seems to be lower than ever, so it’s important to focus on co-productions and collaborate as much as possible. Great concepts still work, no matter how scarce the money.”