Scandinavia’s leading sales outfit REinvent has boarded Norway’s true crime “Escaping Bolivia,” currently filming in Cape Town, South Africa, after an initial shoot in Oslo.
Fenomen (“Rod Knock”) and longstanding outfit 4 ½ (“Out Stealing Horses”) are producing for TV2 Norway, in co-production with Germany’s pubcaster NDR and Oslo Film Fund.
Helmer Anna Gutto, behind Lionsgate’s “Paradise Highway” starring Juliette Binoche, is concept director, working next to creator and episodic writer Emily Beck, attached to Netflix’s “Royalteen.” Toplining the six-part series are Jakob Oftebro (“Agent Hamilton”), Ella Øverbye, from Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Dreams,” Josephine Tetlie, Lisa Hovden and Danish actor Joachim Fjelstrup (“The Girl With the Needle”).
The show is inspired by the infamous drug case of three Norwegian girls aged 17, 18, 21, who were imprisoned in Bolivia after being caught in 2008, with 22kg cocaine in their bags. Two managed to escape – one with a child, helped by a journalist – while the third stayed behind.
In the series, we follow Ida, her sister-in-law Michelle and Ida’s lover Cecilie, as they get arrested at the airport in Bolivia with suitcases packed with cocaine. They are sentenced to jail in one of the world’s most dangerous female prisons. Soon enough, Ida discovers that she can’t trust her friends, nor the Norwegian authorities’ ability to bail her out. She starts planning her escape.
“After eight years of development and research, it feels great that we’re finally filming!” said Beck who co-penned the story with Helena Nielsen, Ingrid Haukelidsæter. “I’m sure that “Escaping Bolivia” will touch, engage and challenge the viewers. The series focuses on friendship, betrayal and love, and something as unique and beautiful as motherhood and doing everything for people you love. At the same time, the series is also about what you’re willing to do and sacrifice to save yourself, and having to grow up behind bars,” she said.
Helene Aurø, REinvent sales and marketing director said: “We are very proud to have picked up ‘Escaping Bolivia.’ It is an amazing story that needs to be told and we are sure the series will find an audience around the world.” Delivery is planned for late 2025.
Other premium titles on REinvent’s Mipcom slate include the Finnish thriller drama “L/over,” the first live-action fiction show initiated by Marika Makaroff, founder of “Moominvalley’s”producer Gutsy Animations. The completed series, starring Krista Kosonen and Jani Volanen, is due to premiere in Finland on MTV3/C More in 2025.
Two high-end Icelandic shows will also be teased to buyers: “Reykjavik 112,” based on best-selling novelist Yrsa Sigurdardóttir, billed as a “Nordic bright and modern take on the crime thriller genre,” and the anticipated biopic “Vigdis” from “Blackport” creatives at Vesturport prodco, about Iceland’s former president, the iconic Vigdís Finnbogadóttir.
Jakob Oftebro in Escaping Bolivia
Credit: Lillian Julsvik
