Trom review — Faroe Islands’ first TV drama supplies atmospheric Nordic noir

The first TV drama from the Faroe Islands may sound like a proposition that could only tempt Nordic-noir completists. But anyone who relishes patient storytelling and striking cinematography will find plenty to enjoy in Trom, a six-part crime-cum-conspiracy thriller now showing on the BBC.

The title, for those of us who might need to brush up on our Faroese, can be translated as “edge” and is pleasingly multivalent. Not only does it refer to the mountainous landscape of the North Atlantic archipelago, and its place on the fringes of the globe, but it also hints at the perilous situation its characters find themselves in after they unearth proof of corruption in the government, business and law enforcement of the country, which is part of Denmark.

At first, the details of this network of malfeasance and the key players implicated are shrouded as if by a dense Faroese fog. What we do know from the outset is that eco-activist Sonja (Helena Heðinsdóttir) and her colleague Páll have come across incriminating information that some influential figures will go to extreme lengths to suppress. Within hours of Páll suggesting that their lives could be in danger, he discovers that his car has been tampered with. A crash on one of the island’s sinuous roads leaves him in a coma.

Sonja meanwhile comes home to find her daughter’s bed a sickening crimson colour. It’s a warning written in whale blood and blubber — a local twist on the horse’s head. With her confidant indisposed and the police in no rush to help a well-known agitator, she turns to Denmark-based journalist Hannis (Ulrich Thomsen) and reveals, by-the-by, that she’s also the child he never knew he had.

What the basic premise lacks in novelty, Trom more than makes up for with a thick sense of atmosphere and location-specific detail — from the whaling and oceanic pollution context to the local police chief’s reluctance to defer to Danish authorities. Best of all are the sweeping aerial shots of the land, which swallows its inhabitants in its vast sparseness. They perfectly complement this tale of individuals facing up to formidable forces.

★★★★☆

From July 9 at 9pm on BBC4 and on iPlayer