''Nobel'' is a 2016 Norwegian television series that premiered on

NRK NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting Aksjeselskap, AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and ...

on 25 September 2016. It depicts Norway’s military involvement in Afghanistan. It was produced by Monster Scripted for the Norwegian broadcaster

and was broadcast under the title ''Nobel – fred for enhver pris'' (''Nobel – Peace at Any Cost''). The series under the title ''Nobel'' was made available on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

for streaming on 13 December 2016. Nobel was subsequently removed from Netflix in November 2020.

Background

The series originated from its director Per-Olav Sørensen who was interested in making a contemporary story about Norwegian soldiers involved in military operations in Afghanistan. The script was written with Mette Marit Bøstad and Stephen Uhlander. The producer Håkon Briseid pitched the idea to NRK who then commissioned the TV series. The series was filmed in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

and

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

in 2015. The production cost 68 million Norwegian krone (€7.9m), and the series is a co-production with Sirena Film in collaboration with DR (Denmark), SVT (Sweden) and

RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) (pronounced or ) ( en, 'The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service') is Iceland's national public-service broadcasting organization. Operating from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional cent ...

(Iceland) with support from the

Norwegian Film Institute The Norwegian Film Institute ( no, Norsk filminstitutt) was founded in 1955 to support and develop the Norwegian film industry. On 1 April 2008, it was merged with Norwegian Film Fund, Norwegian Film Development, and Norwegian Film Commission to ...

and Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The series was acquired for broadcast in France, Israel, and the

Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in western Europe: B ...

countries. It was also sold to Netflix for streaming in various English-speaking countries. The first episode of seven was broadcast as a double episode in Norway, but released as two single episodes on Netflix, making a total of eight episodes for the series.

Cast

Aksel Hennie Aksel Hennie (born 29 October 1975) is a Norwegian actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for his roles in the films '' Headhunters'' (2011), ''Hercules'' (2014), and '' The Martian'' (2015). Early life Hennie was born in the Lambert ...

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

Erling Riiser, a paratrooper patrol commander *

Tuva Novotny Tuva Moa Matilda Karolina Novotny Hedström (born 21 December 1979) is a Swedish actress, director, and singer. She was born in Stockholm, and was raised in Åmot, Brunskog, outside Arvika. She is the daughter of Czech film director David Ja ...

as Johanne Riiser, Erling's wife and the Foreign Minister's

Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...

Anders Danielsen Lie Anders Danielsen Lie (born 1 January 1979) is a Norwegian actor, musician and medical doctor. Education Danielsen Lie studied Ancient Greek (1997-1998), musicology (2001-2003) and medicine (1999-2007) at the University of Oslo. Career Acting ...

as Lieutenant Jon Petter Hals, paratrooper patrol commander prior to Erling *

Dennis Storhøi Jahn Dennis Storhøi (born July 15, 1960 in Fredrikstad, Norway) is a Norwegian actor. Biography He is an acclaimed theatre actor in Norway, having won several awards. However, he is known for his role as ''Herger the Joyous'' in John McTiernan' ...

Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

Jørund Ekeberg, Head of

Forsvarets Spesialkommando ) , type = Special forces , role = , size = Classified , command_structure = , current_commander = Colonel Brage Andreas Larssen , garrison = Rena leir , ceremonial_chief = , colonel_of_the_regiment = , nickname = , patron = , mo ...

* Mads Sjøgård Pettersen as Lieutenant Håvard Bakkeli *

Danica Curcic Danica Curcic ( sr-cyrl, Даница Ћурчић, sr-latn, Danica Ćurčić) is a Serbs, Serbian-Danes, Danish actress. Biography Curcic was born in Belgrade. At the age of one, she moved to Copenhagen with her family where her father work ...

as Lieutenant Adella Hanefi, an interpreter in the

Norwegian Intelligence Service The Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) or Etterretningstjenesten (E-tjenesten) is a Norwegian military intelligence agency under the Chief of Defence and the Ministry of Defence. History Olav Njølstad says that the "stay-behind cooperation ...

* as Minister of Foreign Affairs Johan Ruud *

Odd-Magnus Williamson Odd-Magnus Williamson (born 14 September 1980) is a Norwegian comedian and actor. He is known to Norwegian television audiences for his recurring appearance in commercials for the grocery chain ICA and his performance on the Norwegian version o ...

Second Lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

Hans Ivar Johansen * Kyrre Hellum as

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

Jan Burås, Erling's superior officer * Mattis Herman Nyquist as Hektor Stolt-Hansen, Project Manager for the "Fruit for Life" aid organization * Amund Wiegand Blakstvedt as Rikard Riiser, Erling's and Johanne's son * as Rolf Innherad, a geologist representing Olje for utvikling (OFU) * as Sharif Zamani, a powerful landowner with ties to

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

* as Mullah Ahmed, the

commander in the

Balkh Province Balkh (Dari: , ''Balx'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north of the country. It is divided into 15 districts and has a population of about 1,509,183, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a Persian-speaking society. The c ...

* Ayesha Wolasmal as Wasima Zamani, Sharif's wife and cousin * as Heydar Zamani, Sharif's uncle and personal advisor * André Jerman as Kristoffer Abel, The Foreign Minister's

Director of communications Director of communications is a position in both the private and public sectors. A director of communications is responsible for managing and directing an organization's internal and external communications. Directors of communications supervis ...

Rolf Kristian Larsen Rolf Kristian Larsen (born May 18, 1983) is an actor from Stavanger, Norway. He portrayed the character "Morten-Tobias" in the Norwegian film "Fritt Vilt" (English title "Cold Prey") in 2006. He also starred in the film " Mannen som elsket Yngv ...

as Sven Rasch, a War correspondent for VG * Eirik Evjen as

Sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

Sigurd Sønsteby * Ingrid Jørgensen Dragland as Minister of Defence Kjersti Mo * Heidi Toini as Charlotte Heiberg, Johanne's personal assistant *

Ellen Horn Ellen Horn (born Ellen Stoesen, 1 February 1951) is a Norwegian actress, theatre director, and politician for the Labour Party.Rossiné Career Horn started as a puppet actor at Oslo Nye Teater (1969–70), and was educated at the Teaterhøys ...

as Nora Backer, the Chairwoman of the

Norwegian Nobel Committee The Norwegian Nobel Committee ( no, Den norske Nobelkomité) selects the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize each year on behalf of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel's estate, based on instructions of Nobel's will. Five members are appointed by ...

Samuel Fröler Per Samuel Fröler (born 24 March 1957) is a Swedish actor. His break-through was in the TV series Tre Kärlekar in 1989. He played the protagonist in the drama series ''Skärgårdsdoktorn'', and has also acted in several films. At the 28th Guldb ...

as Gunnar Riiser, Erling's father and a former professional

jockey A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used to describe the individual ...

Reception

The series was generally well-received by Norwegian critics. Kjetil Lismoen of ''

Aftenposten ( in the masthead; ; Norwegian for "The Evening Post") is Norway's largest printed newspaper by circulation. It is based in Oslo. It sold 211,769 copies in 2015 (172,029 printed copies according to University of Bergen) and estimated 1.2 million ...

'' praised the acting and found the portrayal of the political machinations and the cost that comes from being involved in a war credible. Marie Kleve of ''

Dagbladet ''Dagbladet'' (lit.: ''The Daily Magazine'') is one of Norway's largest newspapers and is published in the tabloid format. It has 1,400,000 daily readers on mobile, web and paper. Traditionally ''Dagbladet'' is considered the main liberal newsp ...

'' considered the series to be socially relevant and significant while at the same time also entertaining to viewers. Øystein David Johansen of '' VG'' thought it an ambitious series with outstanding portrayal of the troops in Afghanistan, but found that it was the human drama in the series that impressed him most. The premiere double episode was watched initially by 750,000 viewers excluding online viewers in Norway (a market share of 45%), with its Total Screen rating reaching 1.322 million viewers when online viewings over a longer period are included. There were over 1 million total viewers for every episode of the series. The final episode was watched by 703,000 viewers on its initial broadcast, with its total audience expected to reach 1.2 million. The series was nominated for the 2016

Prix Italia The Prix Italia is an international Television, Radio-broadcasting and Web award. It was established in 1948 by RAI – Radiotelevisione Italiana (in 1948, RAI had the denomination RAI – Radio Audizioni Italiane) in Capri and is honoured with the ...

in the TV drama category. It won the 2016

Prix Europa {{notability, Events, date=March 2021 PRIX EUROPA – The European Broadcasting Festival – is the Europe's largest annual tri-medial festival and competition. The event takes place in the third week of October in Berlin, Germany. PRIX E ...

Media Award for Best European TV movie/mini-series, and in 2017, it won the

Rose d'Or The Rose d'Or ('Golden Rose') is an international awards festival in entertainment broadcasting and programming. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) first acquired the Rose d’Or in 1961, when it was created by Swiss Television in the lakesi ...

in the Drama Series category.

Episodes

Awards and nominations

Home Video

Nobel was released on DVD in the UK on 12 November 2018.

References

External links

* at

* {{IMDb title, 4591834, Nobel 2010s Norwegian television series Norwegian-language television shows Norwegian drama television series Television shows set in Afghanistan Television shows set in Norway