From Nordic Noir to New Nordic Magic

KOSMORAMA. In the new issue of Kosmorama, three scholars look into the new magical trend in film and tv series from Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Forget about Nordic Noir! These days ’New Nordic Magic’ is all the rage in Scandinavia, where trolls, vampires and deadly viruses spread in film and tv-series on the supernatural, the magic and in sci-fi.

But how come these hitherto largely unseen genres are suddenly surging in Scandinavian small-country filmmaking? And how does the Scandinavian origin add a touch of everyday realism to the fantastic genres? This issue of Kosmorama digs into three examples of ‘New Nordic Magic’ from Norway, Denmark and Sweden.

In contrast to mainstream fantasy, 'New Nordic Magic' seems concerned with the everyday grind, writes Stephen Joyce in his analysis of the Norwegian HBO-series Beforeigners:

From his covid-19-lockdown, Jakob Ion Wille, who co-edited this issue, has studied the deadly pandemic of the Netflix scifi-series The Rain:

Rikke Schubart looks into how Iranian-Swedish director Ali Abbasi negotiates the emotions of wonder and disgust and combine the fantastic with realism in new ways in his awe-inspiring film Border: