Icelandic Creators of Berlinale Series Market Selects’ ‘Vigdís’ on Biopic of Former President: ‘She Was a Role Model to Generations of Women’

variety.com:

Annika Pham “Vigdís,” the four-part biopic about Iceland’s iconic former president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, widely known as the world’s first democratically elected female head of state, will bow Feb.

17 at the Berlinale Series Market Selects, courtesy of REinvent International. The show – which chronicles Finnbogadóttir’s journey from 1948, when she finished secondary school, up until her presidential election in 1980 – lands in Berlin off the back of a strong national run on pubcaster RÚV, where it premiered on Jan.

1. “It’s one of the most successful TV series broadcasted in Iceland, with around 60% accumulated viewings per episode,” boasts producer Rakel Garðarsdóttir, co-creator with co-writers Ágústa M Ólafsdóttir and Björg Magnúsdóttir (“The Minister”).

In the small nation of 390,000 inhabitants, ruled by two women- President Halla Tómasdóttir and Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir, the series about Finnbogadóttir, who championed equality and women’s rights during her presidency (1980 to 1996), has sparked a national craze for everything related to Vigdís.