Series Mania & Berlinale Select Black Port as Project Exchange

The Icelandic drama Black Port has been selected as the project exchange between Series Mania and the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Series Mania and Berlinale have once again formed a partnership agreement surrounding Berlinale’s Drama Series Days, whereby one project pitched at Series Mania is invited to pitch again in Berlin, and, in return, Series Mania will invite a Berlinale project to pitch in Lille as part of its European Project and Talent Forum. The project chosen is Black Port, an 8×1-hour drama series produced by Vesturport of Iceland.

Set in a rural Icelandic village in the 1980s, Black Port follows a group of friends who manage to build a small fishing empire. These are colorful and prosperous times for everyone associated with the village, but the introduction of a fishing quota system soon limits the fishing rights from the public domain to a few selected ships’ captains. Money and power struggles deeply corrupt the community, resulting in a feud of jealousy, greed and betrayal. Partners already attached include DR Sales (Denmark), The Icelandic Film Fund, Nordvision and Turbine Studios (U.K.).

“We selected Black Port today for many reasons,” commented Laurence Herszberg, general director and founder of Series Mania. “First, its inspired by true events and is a local project taking place in Iceland. Second, it has tremendous international potential due to its political themes, characters, and the dramatic tension of the series. Finally, we were very impressed with the entire team behind Black Port.”