Margrete – Queen of the North
Drama SF Studios – 2021
Director – Charlotte Sieling
Sound designer – Rune Palving, (I did Soundediting for the three episode TV-Series for 2022)
Margrete – Queen of the North is the untold story of Margrete I (played by Trine Dyrholm), a visionary monarch ahead of her time. The year is 1402, and Margrete I has achieved what no man has managed before. She has gathered Denmark, Norway and Sweden into a peace-orientated union, which she single-handedly rules through her young, adopted son, Erik. The union is beset by enemies, however, and Margrete is therefore planning a marriage between Erik and Princess Philippa of England. An alliance with England should secure the union’s status as an emerging European power, but a breathtaking conspiracy is under way that could tear Margrete and all she believes in apart. Sieling co-wrote the script with Jesper Fink and Maya Ilsøe.
Other main cast members are Søren Malling, Morten Hee Andersen, Jakob Oftebro, Bjørn Floberg, Magnus Krepper, Thomas W Gabrielsson, Agnes Rase, Simon J Berger and Paul Blackthorne. The technical crew includes DoP Rasmus Videbæk, production designer Søren Schwarzberg, costume designer Manon Rasmussen, make-up and hair designer AnnaCarin Lock, casting director Anja Philip, editor Sverrir Kristjánsson, sound designer Rune Palving, VFX designer Thomas Dyg and composer Jon Ekstrand.
Speaking about her lead character, Sieling said: “Margrete I was an impressive woman, but surprisingly, no one has portrayed her on film. I want to give her a voice and tell people about one of the strongest rulers Europe has ever seen. The woman who created the Kalmar Union, a community among Denmark, Norway and Sweden that lasted for 126 years, and the woman who ruled despite, and not because of, her gender. Margrete – Queen of the North is my portrait of a woman whose challenges, despite the over 600 years of distance in time, were not so different from those that women struggle with today: career, family, motherhood. The film shows what price Margrete I had to pay for being an incomparable stateswoman.”