Minister keen to support Faroese crime TV series

It has for some time appeared that new Faroese TV drama Trom would need to be shot in Iceland due to financial complications associated with shooting it in the Faroes.

Jón Hammer, the series producer, said in May that the Faroese tax rebates for filmmakers – the so-called production incentives – are too low, and that unless DKK 4 million is granted for the project, shooting would most likely take place in Iceland.

“After all, only 50,000 people in the Faroe Islands will see the difference,” he said.

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This has not gone down well with the Faroese public, and earlier this week the mayor of Eysturkommuna municipality vowed to chip in with DKK 1 million. This was swiftly followed by a financial pledge from the mayor of Runavík municipality.

And now, in an apparent U-turn, trade minister Helgi Abrahamsen says he will do everything he can to ensure that the series will be shot in the Faroe Islands.

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“There is an overwhelming support for this project within the government, and I will do what I can to find the required funds in this autumn’s supplementary estimates,” says the minister, who will bring up the matter in Parliament on Tuesday.

Translated by prosa.fo