Happiness on Arte.tv: What is this Norwegian series about the origin of oil in the North Sea?

The history of a changing country, a city and four young people who were caught in a snowstorm. This is the summer of 1969, in the small coastal town of Stavanger. International oil companies have been drilling there for years, but these wells still yielded nothing.

So the companies were getting ready to leave when, on Christmas Eve 1969, at night, a gas torch on the Viking oil rig in the ocean suddenly lit up … and everything could change.

Season 1 of Happiness is fully available from this Friday, May 6 on Arte.tv.

Along with the state of happiness, Arte singles out the usual series of the “Nordic Noir” genre, such as Murder, Bridge, or even Trap, to offer a Norwegian chronicle of the country’s oil origins. This 8-episode fiction takes us straight to a small Norwegian village in the late 60s and tells the story of four characters from different social backgrounds.

Against the epic backdrop of the Black Gold Fever in the North Sea, this series, written by Matthew M. By Bolstad, to whom we owe especially the Nobel Fiction, we are followed by Christian Naiman (Amund Harbo), the son of an entrepreneur, Anna Helevik (Anna Regina). Ellingseter) his fiancé town clerk and farmer’s daughter, Toryl Thorstensen (Malen Waddell), a young woman who worked at the Naiman Cannery and is of religious descent, and finally Jonathan Kay (Bart Edwards), the son of an American lawyer responsible for the statement. The Norwegians want to cancel the contract.

Through these four characters, Happiness explores the history of a changing country. The folk-pop soundtrack-motivated series begs the question, how do we combine capitalism and social progress with prosperity and well-being? If men are at the center of political and economic negotiations, female characters do not stand out, Anna and Toril are the perfect representation of female emancipation.

Note that State of Happiness has already been updated for Season 2, which is still in its infancy. Written by Bolstad, which will be held 5 years later and will cover the period from 1977 to 1980.

Nobel Prize