Liberty

Storyline

LIBERTY takes place in the late 1980s in Tanzania, where two Scandinavian families are stationed: The Danish family, Knudsen, consisting of Niels and Kirsten, their rebellious teenage son, Christian, and their infant daughter, Annemette. They greet Tanzania full of good intentions and a sincere wish to help others. The Knudsens become regular guests at the Danish-Swedish Larsson family's frequent dinner parties. Jonas and Katrina are both seasoned expats who have lived in Tanzania for several years with their daughter, Solja. The Larssons welcome all new arrivals with open arms, cementing their standing as the leading Scandinavian family in town. Over the course of the series, the two families cross paths in dramatic ways, and the personal fights of the adults become increasingly intense. Through the families, we experience a parallel tale of two generations, where the idealism, the self-realization and the moral decay of the grown-ups turn into a slow and relentless betrayal of the children, who slip out into the periphery. Marcus helps the Larsson family in return for food and lodging, and he quickly befriends the newly arrived Christian. The two young men meet in the defining years of their youth. Christian is an aimless Danish teenager seeking an African identity, while Marcus is an industrious local hungering for a European future. They are searching for opposite futures, but find common ground in their love of music. And so, they quickly forge a close friendship, in spite of the hypocrisy of the grown-ups surrounding them. Both generations illustrate how far from our ideals we can stray, when we lose our sense of morality to guide us. The idealism of the grown-ups gradually turns to corruption, lies and deceit, as their sincerity is tested. As they face strangers in a foreign land, they must also face themselves. In the abundance of freedom they experience in Africa, they all come to re-evaluate their own sense of right and wrong, or lack of it. Values, friendships, and families are torn apart - and infidelity, greed and murder fill the void. LIBERTY is both a humorous and brutal portrait of Western expats, whose idealism clashes with cultural differences and local opposition, gradually eroding their good intentions and democratic values in a mix of gin & tonic, tempting colonial advantages, and passion fuelled by the tropical heat in the Tanzanian nights. Along the way, they discover the complexity of leaving one culture and identity, to enter another. And how difficult it is to go back to who you were - but that in the end, the journey may well be worth it. The TV drama series is based on Jakob Ejersbo's novel, but creator and main writer Asger Leth's artistic take on the story turns the novel into a drama series by elaborating on the book's adult characters and tightening the timespan. The series differs deliberately from the book in order to craft the story best suited for television. Where the book is told through the eyes of the two young men, the series unfolds the story by elevating the adults' relationships, personal struggles, lies and deceit - financial as well as carnal - and let them play an equally important role.