Smilla's Sense of Snow (TV series)

Smilla's Sense of Snow
GenreCrime drama / thriller
Based onMiss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (1992), by Peter Høeg
Written byAmma Asante, Clive Bradley
Screenplay byAmma Asante, Clive Bradley, Tanya Bubbel, and others
Directed byAmma Asante
Starring
Theme music composerAnne Chmelewsky and Egon Riedel
Country of originInternational co-production
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes6
Production
Executive producersAmma Asante, Oliver Berben, Robert Kulzer, Martin Moszkowicz
ProducerAlicia Remirez
Cinematography6 x 60 mins
Production companies
Original release
Release30 July 2025 (2025-07-30)

Smilla's Sense of Snow is a 2025 six-part European co-produced thriller / crime drama / science fiction TV series based on the 1992 bestselling novel by Danish crime writer Peter Høeg, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow. Starring Danish actress Filippa Coster-Waldau,[a] the series is co-created and directed by British actor and director Amma Asante, and premiered on SBS Television on 30 July 2025.

Synopsis

The series is set amidst political chaos in Copenhagen, owing largely to an energy crisis, in 2040.[1] Bodycams have to be worn by everyone,[2] and drones keep watch over the population. Smilla Jaspersen is a young woman who leads a solitary life, living in a social housing estate, until a chance meeting with a young Greenlandic Inuit boy, Isaiah, who later dies suddenly in suspicious circumstances. Smilla travels to Greenland (where she grew up) to find answers, and finds herself in the middle of political intrigues.[3]

Cast

The cast includes:[1]

  • Filippa Coster-Waldau[a] as Smilla Jaspersen, the protagonist
  • Silver Wolfe as Isaiah, a young Inuit boy
  • Henry Lloyd-Hughes as Karsten Tork, a tech mogul
  • Elyas M'Barek as Rahid Youseffi, a Tunisian political refugee, neighbour of Isaiah
  • Amanda Collin as Katja Claussen, a government minister
  • Morten Suurballe as Moritz, a scientist

Production

The series, announced in 2020,[4] is based on the 1992 bestselling novel by Danish crime writer Peter Høeg, Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow.[3][5] The series consists of six one-hour episodes.[6] It is directed and co-created by British actor and director Amma Asante,[2] along with British writer Clive Bradley, who co-wrote for the series Trapped.[1] Asante had not read the novel, nor seen the 1997 film of the same name directed by Bille August, but connected with the story and the female protagonist, whom she found to be a strong character and one she could relate to as a woman of colour. Asante lives in Denmark.[2]

The series is an English-language, multinational co-production. It is made by German film production studio Constantin Film[5] in co-production with Viaplay (Sweden), ARD Degeto (Germany), and Baltic Film Services, in cooperation with Netflix DACH (aka Netflix Deutschland,[2] in Germany). It is produced by Alicia Remirez, and director Asante is also a co-executive producer,[3] along with Oliver Berben, Robert Kulzer, and Martin Moszkowicz.[4] The team of writers include Tanja Bubbel, Clive Bradley, Tina Hastings, Rebecca Martin, Julie Nørgaard Jensen, Keith Hodder, Sonya Desai, and Pipaluk K. Jørgensen.[2][7] Music is by Anne Chmelewsky and Egon Riedel.[2] Colin Scully, Alex Westmore, and Brandon Zimon were appointed to oversee the project in 2020.[4]

Filming of the Copenhagen scenes took place in Vilnius, Lithuania, and then Latvia. Production moved to Finland to follow the snow that was needed in later scenes.[2]

Filippa Navarana Coster-Waldau[a][8] is a young Danish actress, who in 2022 starred in a leading role in DR's acclaimed 2022 youth series Salsa as well as the lead character Louise in Viaplay's original series Where Were You?.[7] One of her earliest roles was as a teenager in the 2014 short film The Girl and the Dogs,[6] directed by Finnish filmmaker Selma Vilhunen and Guillaume Mainguet, shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014.[9][10] Her parents are Greenlandic singer and Danish actor Nukâka Coster-Waldau and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the latter known for his part in Game of Thrones.[11][12][8]

Turkish German actor Elyas M'Barek plays his first lead role in an international production.[13]

Genre and themes

The series has variously been described as "crime drama",[2][13] "a gripping conspiracy thriller layered with themes of identity, environmentalism, and justice",[6] "dystopian",[13] and with a touch of science fiction.[1]

Release

Smilla's Sense of Snow had its world premiere on SBS Television[3] and its streaming service SBS on Demand[14] in Australia on 30 July 2025.[3]

It is distributed by ITV Studios.[3]

Reception

Craig Mathieson of The Sydney Morning Herald wrote that the series distances itself from the 1997 film of the same name directed by Bille August, taking liberties with the plot of the book. He calls it an "existential thriller" that includes "a smidgeon of science-fiction, a mass of the metaphysical", concluding "This offbeat show's greatest mystery is how unconventional it’s determined to be".[1]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Daughter of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Mathieson, Craig (23 July 2025). "Smilla's Sense of Snow review: TV adaptation of Peter Hoeg's 1992 thriller Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Pickard, Michael (22 October 2024). "Snow queen". Drama Quarterly. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Knox, David (23 July 2025). "World Premiere: Smilla's Sense of Snow". TV Tonight. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  4. ^ a b c Vlessing, Etan (24 September 2020). "Amma Asante to Direct Drama 'Smilla's Sense of Snow'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
  5. ^ a b "Constantin Film's Smilla's Sense of Snow adaption lands Amma Asante to direct". Constantin Film. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  6. ^ a b c "Show of the Week – Smilla's Sense of Snow". C21media. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
  7. ^ a b Barraclough, Leo (2 December 2024). "Filippa Coster-Waldau, Elyas M'Barek and Henry Lloyd-Hughes Star in 'Smilla's Sense of Snow,' First-Look Images Revealed (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
  8. ^ a b Granberg, Signe Bjørg (3 December 2024). "Dansk stortalent spiller hovedrollen i den nye serie 'Smilla's Sense of Snow'". Vi Elsker Serier (in Danish). Retrieved 29 July 2025.
  9. ^ "Short Film Catalog: The Girl And The Dogs". Festival de Cannes. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
  10. ^ "The Girl and the Dogs". Copenhagen Film Fund. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
  11. ^ "Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's Duplicitous Roles Are Nothing Like His Real-Life Persona". marie claire. 12 April 2023. Retrieved 29 July 2025. Together they have two children, Filippa, 22, and Safina, 19.
  12. ^ Dwilson, Stephanie Dube (16 July 2017). "Nukaaka Coster-Waldau, Nikolaj's Wife: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  13. ^ a b c "Distributed by ITV Studios: Filippa Coster-Waldau, Elyas M'Barek and Henry Lloyd-Hughes Star in Smilla's Sense Of Snow". ITV Press Centre. 2 December 2024. Retrieved 29 July 2025.
  14. ^ "Watch Smilla's Sense Of Snow". Stream free on SBS On Demand. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
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