Martin Asphaug (born 28 April 1950) is a

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

from

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. With a background in writing and directing

short films A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

, industry

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

and PSAs, Asphaug made his feature film debut with the award-winning 1989 film, ''

A Handful of Time A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

''. Since 1992 Asphaug has primarily worked in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, in several cases with SVT, directing episodes of ''

Rederiet ''Rederiet'' (''High Seas'' or ''The Shipping Company'') was a (318 episodes) Swedish soap opera that aired on Sveriges Television between August 1992 and April 2002. The cast featured many popular and renowned Swedish actors. The 45-minute epi ...

'' and the first season of ''

Skärgårdsdoktorn ''Skärgårdsdoktorn'' is a Swedish television series produced by SVT Drama. The series ran from 1997 to 2000 and a total of 18 episodes were produced. In English, the title could be translated as ''The archipelago doctor'', and it came to be one ...

''. Since 2000, Asphaug has worked on several projects from author

Håkan Nesser Håkan Nesser (born 21 February 1950) is a Swedish author and teacher who has written a number of successful novels, mostly but not only crime fiction. He has won Best Swedish Crime Novel Award three times, and his novel ''Carambole'' won the pre ...

, the first films of the ''Van Veeteren'' series (adaptations of '' The Mind's Eye'', '' The Return'' and ''

Woman with Birthmark ''Woman with Birthmark'' (''Kvinna med födelsemärke'') is a 1996 novel by Håkan Nesser, which won the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award The Best Swedish Crime Novel Award (''Bästa svenska kriminalroman'') is a literary prize awarded annually sin ...

'') and the 1962 period film ''Kim Novak badade aldrig i Genesarets sjö'' of 2005. In 2007 he directed the first two films of the ''Irene Huss'' series by

Helene Tursten Helene Tursten (born in Gothenburg on February 17, 1954) is a Swedish writer of crime fiction. Work The main character in her stories is Detective Inspector Irene Huss. Before becoming an author, Tursten worked as a nurse and then a dentist, bu ...

. He lives near

Ystad Ystad (; older da, Ysted) is a town and the seat of Ystad Municipality, in Scania County, Sweden. Ystad had 18,350 inhabitants in 2010. The settlement dates from the 11th century and has become a busy ferryport, local administrative centre, and ...

Skåne Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne C ...

Filmography

Feature films: * ''En Håndfull Tid'' (1989, ''

'') * ''Svampe'' (1990) * ''Giftige Løgner'' (1992, ''Toxic Lies'') * ''

Andreaskorset ''Andreaskorset'' (literally Andrew's Cross, released in English as ''The Crossing'') is a Norwegian erotic thriller film that premiered in 2004. The film received lukewarm reviews, and it is perhaps best remembered as one of 2004's least viewed f ...

'' (2004, ''The Crossing'') * ''Kim Novak badade aldrig i Genesarets sjö'' (2005, ''Kim Novak Never Swam in Genesaret's Lake'') TV series: * ''Min vän Percys magiska gymnastikskor'' (1994, ''My Friend Percy's Magic Gym Shoes'') * ''Zonen'' (1996, ''The Zone'') * ''

'', episodes 1-8 (1997) * ''Det Grovmaskiga Nätet'' (2000, ''The Mind's Eye'') * ''Återkomsten'' (2001, ''The Return'') * ''Kvinna med Födelsemärke'' (2001, ''Woman with Birthmark'') * ''Slangebæreren'' (2005, ''The Snakebearer'') Short films: * "Stil" (1986, "Essay") * "Hyl" (1987, "Howl") * "Brr" (1987) * ''Folk flest bor i Kina'' (2002: segment "SV")

References

External links

* * Norwegian film directors 1950 births Living people Norwegian screenwriters {{Norway-film-director-stub