Occupied

Plot

Season One

In the near future, Middle East turmoil and the US withdrawal from NATO triggers an energy crisis. A catastrophic hurricane fueled by climate change devastates Norway, killing 700–800 people and causing untold physical and economic damage. The Norwegian (fictitious) green party Ny Kraft is swept to power in response, and idealistic Prime Minister Jesper Berg plans to develop thorium-based nuclear power as a viable alternative to oil. To this end, Berg cuts off all fossil fuel production, intensifying the energy crisis in the continent. The European Union, in desperation, acquiesces to a Russian-led invasion of Norway.

Berg attends the inauguration of the first thorium plant, proclaiming the end of fossil fuels. As he leaves the event, Russian special forces kidnap Berg and fly him by helicopter to a forest. There, via video chat, EU Commissioner Pierre Anselme demands that he restart Norwegian oil production or face a full-scale invasion. Berg refuses and attempts to escape upon seeing a civilian approach the helicopter. The soldiers shoot the man, forcing Berg to agree to the EU's demands. Berg is released and is picked up by his bodyguard, Martin Djupvik, who has been pursuing the helicopter. To conceal the nature of the occupation, Berg spins the presence of the Russians as a temporary "energy partnership". This cover story unravels as a series of events complicates Norwegian–Russian interactions over the ensuing months while Berg's political position disintegrates as he tries to avoid bloodshed and war.

At a ceremony on Constitution Day, a member of the Royal Guard named Stefan Christensen attempts to assassinate Russian ambassador Irina Sidorova, but is thwarted by Djupvik. He is thanked by the ambassador after the event, and becomes an important player in relations between the Norwegian government and Russian embassy. A Norwegian military unit abducts two Russian officials who had been urging the Commander of the Royal Guard, Harald Vold, to surrender himself to Russian custody on suspicion of hatching the assassination plot, instigating a hostage situation with the demands being Christensen's release. Djupvik assists in resolving the situation, and afterwards is assigned by Police Security Service chief Wenche Arnesen to work on protecting Russian officials.

Bente Norum, who owns a restaurant opposite the Russian embassy in Oslo, becomes increasingly involved with the Russians, who become her primary customers. This does not sit well with her husband Thomas Eriksen, a journalist who is outspoken against the Russian presence in Norway. Their marriage becomes strained and Bente develops a relationship with a Russian embassy official named Nikolai.

Season Two

After being kidnapped, Berg is proclaimed as the new leader of Free Norway, and the group carries out a guerrilla campaign against the occupation, attacking both Russian and Norwegian forces and staging terror attacks throughout the country, nearly plummeting the country into a civil war. Six months later, however, the insurgents have lost much of their strength due to heavy Russian military and Norwegian police action. Berg is thus forced into exile in neighboring Sweden, which had supported the initial Russian invasion as a member of the EU. Berg's replacement as prime minister, fellow party member Anders Knudsen, proves unable to handle the pressure and resigns. Following his exile to Sweden, Berg attempts to form a parallel government-in-exile. While acting as a go-between for Berg and the leaders of Norway's parliament, the Storting, his political adviser and lover Anita Rygh sees her political role marginalized. Rygh instead recommends to the majority party that they form a new government. The President of the Storting refuses, but offers her the prime ministerial position instead. She accepts, severing her ties with Berg.

A Coast Guard officer approaches Berg with news that the Russians are installing cruise missile launchers on the oil installation of Melkøya in northern Norway. From his position in Sweden, Berg contacts the insurgents and orders them to get photographic evidence. Under the guise of an inspection, a platoon of guardsmen independently confronts members of a Russian private military company stationed there. One of the guardsmen, a naturalized Somali immigrant named Faisal Abdi, transmits a video of the missiles, but a gunfight breaks out and the guardsmen are captured and brought to a Russian prison. The leader of the platoon dies after being hit by gunfire. The return of the soldiers becomes a source of tension between both nations and Rygh's first true test as prime minister.

Since Russians were killed in the incident, the Russian authorities are unwilling to return the soldiers to Norway. Djupvik's wife Hilde drafts a plan to have them tried in Norway with a Russian lay judge presiding; the Russians agree, and all of the soldiers are found guilty and given the maximum sentence (21 years imprisonment). Faisal's girlfriend Frida Engø and her hacker friend Leon Tangen launch Free Our Soldiers (FOS), a peaceful protest group demanding the release of the soldiers.

Bente Norum has opened a hotel with a Russian business partner named Zoya. As with the restaurant, this venue is popular among Russians and becomes a profitable venture. When a powerful Russian oligarch, Konstantin Minnikov, stays at the hotel, Norum is approached by a resistance agent who asks she copy the contents of Minnikov's phone and send it to them. She initially declines, but after discovering that Minnikov has secretly bought out Zoya's share of the hotel, she does so. Minnikov's daughter Nadja replaces Zoya as Norum's business partner, and befriends Norum's daughter Maja. Meanwhile, Nikolai has moved in with Norum and Maja.

Season Three

After Rygh's assassination, Berg is tasked with forming a new government, and takes Grete Sundby as his new State Secretary. He reluctantly agrees to ratify the peace treaty forged between Rygh and the Russian government, which entails resuming oil and gas production to Europe. During the re-opening ceremony of the Melkøya facility, a gas explosion kills 56 people. Berg, who was attending the event, narrowly escapes unharmed. He begins working on a register of all Russians living in Norway, claiming he seeks to protect them from discrimination; however, Hilde discovers evidence that the government plans to deport all Russians in the country.

Sidorova has been removed as ambassador to Norway by the Russian government, who claim it is due to her unpopularity with the Norwegian population. However, she believes it is due to her relationship with another woman, Lyubov Sorokina. On a whim, Lyubov tells the press she believes the Melkøya explosion was a Russian attack. Fearing for their safety, Sidorova fakes a Russian assassination attempt against herself to prevent deportation to Russia.

Sundby admits to Berg that Parliament collaborated with the Russian government during the occupation, including a demand to grant Russian residents citizenship. Berg has Sidorova provide evidence for this in exchange for preventing her deportation to Russia. He convinces the Supreme Court to dissolve Parliament using powers granted by a state of emergency, scheduling elections for September. Most of the members of parliament are arrested on charges of treason and collaboration. Berg revokes the citizenships of Russian residents, forcing them to apply for residency or face deportation. He personally orders the deportation of Lyubov, hoping to force Sidorova to leave the country to be with her. Hilde helps overturn the mass deportation of Russians, allowing them to return to Norway, but Lyubov is detained at the airport in Moscow. Sidorova arranges for Lyubov to be smuggled out of Russia through Georgia; they cross the border without incident, but Lyubov undergoes an operation in Tbilisi where a small ampoule of poison is implanted in her body. Sidorova is contacted by a Russian official, who tells her that the ampoule is remote-controlled and that Lyubov will be killed if Sidorova is disloyal to Russia again.

Norum and Maja have moved to Moscow. She seeks to buy a share in a restaurant owned by businessman Igor Sobol.

Cast and characters

Main cast

= Main cast (credited)

= Recurring cast (3+)

= Guest cast (1-2)

Current cast

Henrik Mestad as Jesper Berg, the environmentalist Prime Minister of Norway, later leader of Free Norway

Eldar Skar as Hans Martin Djupvik, a member of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) and Berg's bodyguard, later a Russian agent, and then chief of the PST

Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė as Irina Sidorova, the Russian ambassador to Norway

Ane Dahl Torp as Bente Norum, a restaurant owner, married to Thomas Eriksen

Janne Heltberg as Anita Rygh, political advisor to Prime Minister Berg, later Prime Minister of Norway

Selome Emnetu as Hilde Djupvik, a Norwegian judge, wife of Hans Martin Djupvik

Veslemøy Mørkrid as Ingrid Bø, a PST officer

Stig Amdam as Lieutenant-Colonel Harald Vold, former Commander of Hans Majestet Kongens Garde, co-founder of Fritt Norge and Leader of the Liberation Party

Lisa Loven Kongsli as Astrid Berg, Jesper Berg's wife and Project Manager of a United Nations Poverty Program in Paris

Alexej Manvelov as Nikolai, Russian security guard and Bente's lover

Morten Svartveit as Anders Knudsen, the Minister of Finance in Jesper Berg's Government, later interim prime minister

Thea Green Lundberg as Frida Engø, political activist

Kristin Skogheim as Ingvild Friis, the Minister of Justice

Episodes

Production

Jo Nesbø wrote the first episodes in 2008, and the series, planned to be produced for Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), received a NOK 9.7 million production grant from the Norwegian Film Institute in April 2013. After four years of planning, disagreements over the progress led NRK to withdraw from the project; TV2 took over in October 2013.

Erik Skjoldbjærg told NPR's Ari Shapiro that "any kind of good fiction feeds off the reality of some situation. In fact we were looking at a number of different conflicts. One was the invasion of Iraq in 2003."

Release

Broadcast

The series premiered in Norway on TV2 on 5 October 2015, and in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 13 January 2016 on Sky Arts in HD. The series was added to the Netflix streaming service, in multiple countries, as of 20 January 2016. The series premiered on Pivot TV in the United States on 5 May 2016 and on the Canadian public television stations TVOntario and Knowledge Network. TVOntario premiered the show on 11 September 2016 and Knowledge Network broadcast the show beginning 26 June 2020. In Poland, the series broadcasts on Ale Kino+.

Reception

The Daily Telegraph's cultural reviewer Gerard O'Donovan wrote of Occupied that the series' innovation more than made up for any lack of plausibility, citing the interesting historical, geopolitical interplay between Norway and Russia as fascinating. O'Donovan went on to praise the first episode, saying, "the tense plotting and a pace sufficiently frenetic to carry all but the most curmudgeonly along."

Vyacheslav Pavlovsky, the Russian ambassador to Norway, told Russian News Agency TASS,

"It is certainly a shame that, in the year of the 70th anniversary of the victory in World War II, the authors have seemingly forgotten the Soviet Army's heroic contribution to the liberation of northern Norway from Nazi occupiers, decided, in the worst traditions of the Cold War, to scare Norwegian spectators with the nonexistent threat from the east." The Russian embassy had been informed in an early stage of the work on the series.

The circumstances depicted in Occupied have been compared to Russia's invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014 and more recently to the Russian threats toward Ukraine before the 2022 war.

Occupied also casts the integrity of Green politicians in a bad light, and portrays the European Union commissioners as devious and hypocritical.