Blackport (Icelandic: Verbúðin) is an Icelandic television drama miniseries, written by Gísli Örn Garðarsson, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson and Mikael Torfason[1] and produced by Vesturport in association with RÚV. The first episode of the eight part series[2] premiered on the RÚV (TV channel) on 26 December 2021.[3][4]
The series takes place from 1983 to 1991 and follows a married couple, Harpa and Grimur, who buy an old trawler with their childhood friends and build a small fishing empire in a village in the Westfjords of Iceland. All goes well until the Icelandic government starts enforcing new restrictive fishing quotas which turn their lives upside down and result in a feud of jealousy, greed and betrayal.[5]
According to a poll by Prósent, 57% of the Icelandic population watched the first episode of the show with 88% giving it a positive review.[15][16] Following the shows première, Independence Party parliamentarian Ásmundur Friðriksson criticised the show for its portrayal of the rural people of Iceland.[17][18]
In September 2021, the series won the Grand Prize at the 2021 Series Mania festival.[19] In November it won the jury prize at the Serielizados Fest in Spain.[20] On 2 February 2022, the Nordisk Film & TV Fond announced that Gísli Örn Gardarsson, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson and Mikael Torfason, writers of Blackport, where the recipients of the 2022 Nordic TV Drama Screenplay Award.[21][22][23]