For the October 2023 issue of the Swedish Nuda Paper (a biannual hardcover publication), Icelandic poet, novelist, and lyricist Sjón and Noomi Rapace join for a discussion on the complexity of the human species and its most salient features. A wide-ranging interivew accompanied by a fantastic new editorial featuring Noomi. Drawing from memories of their Icelandic childhood and recent experiences with their surroundings, Sjón and Rapace highlight the meaningful influence that an innate connection with nature has had on how they think of life. As they investigate the links between human evolution and climate change, the conversation rapidly turns into a call to action to denounce the abuses inflicted on the most fragile, animals and humans alike. From the necessity to take control of our competitiveness to the disillusionment with today’s materialistic system, the two pinpoint the perks and flaws of what being human entails while stressing the urge to go back to our most genuine essence. The article can be read on the Nuda Paper website, the hardcover can be ordered in their shop.

With nothing happening in the present, let’s take another deep dive into the past: Several articles and interviews from Icelandic outlets have been added, all covering Noomi’s breakthrough role with the “Millennium” trilogy and her move to Hollywood. Included are some great cover stories and rare pictures from that time. Enjoy the new addtions.

After having completed Noomi’s recent TV tenure on “Django”, I have spent some more time researching her previous tv work – which proves a difficult task since most of Noomi’s early work on Swedish television has never been released on DVD or has been shown outside of Sweden. But, I was successful in finding additional promotional stills for “Tre Kronor” and “Stora Teatern”, as well as screencaptures and videos from the 2007 drama series “Labyrint”, for which Noomi also participated in so-called mobisodes – short extras to the general episodes which were exclusively shown online. Those can be now found in the video archive, all courtesy cinematographer Alex Linden’s Vimeo page. All photo updates can be found below. Enjoy.

Most of us have probably first seen Noomi in the spectacular “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, the first in Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium” book series that was planned to feature 10 volumes, but was cut short after Larsson’s death and three and a half books. Back then, David Lagercrantz was commissioned to carry the series forward and wrote a further three volumes. Now, Karin Smirnoff, a successful journalist and novelist in her own right, has instigated a planned further trilogy. “The Girl in The Eagle’s Talons” reintroduces us to damaged hacker, and now businesswoman Salander, and her friend and occasional lover Blomkvist. The action largely takes place in Norrland County in the north of Sweden. Salander has travelled north to come to the aid of her niece Svala, whose mother has gone missing. Blomkvist, dispirited by the end, after 31 years, of his beloved print magazine ‘Millennium’, and its conversion into a podcast, is in the area because his daughter Pernilla is marrying local politician and businessman Henry Salo. The untapped natural resources of Sweden’s far north have begun to attract the attention of various multinational companies, eager to cash in. The area has become something of a new Klondyke. There are people who are not willing to leave their homes to facilitate the construction of giant wind farms and people who are not willing to accept such refusals. There have been many disappearances of young immigrant women in the area. You can read more about the book over here. As we know, Rapace’s Salander time has been finished with the film trilogy, but I think we all still enjoy a good Salander sleuthing.

Just as we have finished covering “Django”, US viewers will finally get a chance to watch the 10-part Western series themselves. Netflix has just licenced the series and put out all 10 episodes on October 01, 2023. The series first aired earlier this year on Canal+ in France before Sky picked up the rights in both Italy and the United Kingdom. In Australia, the rights were sold to SBS. Although a French-Italian production (Cattleya and Atlantique Productions are behind it), the 10-episode series is spoken in English. StudioCanal distributes the series. Reviews for the series weren’t that strong, with the series sitting at a 4.4/10 on IMDb at the time of publishing. The Guardian gifted the series with a 3-star review, concluding, “It is preposterous and overblown and gory, but if you settle in for the long haul then there is potential in this stranger who has come to town to raise hell.”

We wrap up our “Django” coverage with screencaptures from the final episode, “The Western Sea”. Since the series has not been released in many territories outside of Europe, I’ve worked on a new site feature to provide more in-depth information on every episode of “Django” – and while we’re at it, more information about Noomi’s other television projects. So from now on you can find additional pages for Django, Jack Ryan, The Millennium Trilogy and one of Noomi’s very first tv appearances, 2001’s Pusselbitar. I’ve tried finding more information or episode recaps on Noomi’s additional Swedish work, namely Labyrint, Stora Teatern and Tre Kronor, but haven’t been successful so far. If you have collected more information on those shows or other projects, feel free to write me. In the meantime, enjoy the screencaptures from the “Django” finale.

We’re almost done with covering the episodes of “Django”. With today’s update, screencaptures from episodes 7 to 9 have been added, leaving us with only the final episode missing. That one will be posted next week, along with a little surprise to wrap up the “Django” coverage. Enjoy your weekend.

On we go with “Django” screencaptures from episodes 4 through 6. While there was little promotion on the series, Noomi shared some details on her role in an interview with BT TV: “Westerns was my favourite genre growing up and I saw this and it had Nicholas, Matthias and it was the perfect combo of everything. It was an easy choice to come aboard. All the characters have different flavours and colours that separate them. Matthias is sensitive and not just the tough guy.” Expanding on her character, she adds: “Elizabeth” wouldn’t stay in this box. If men can play like this, I’m going to do that – and do it worse. She’s revolting and you see that throughout the series. She’s taking back control and has this inner battle between the woman in her and the man in her. It explores the masculine and feminine in all these characters.” Enjoy the screencaptures.

I’m very happy to finally share Blu-Ray screencaptures of Noomi’s most recent appearance on the anthology series “Django”. The 10-part western starring Matthias Schoenaerts premiered in February of this year on Sky and Canal Plus – but went mostly unnoticed due to disappointing reviews and very little press. So far, the series has only been released on DVD and Blu-Ray in France. So it took me a while, but now we can enjoy Noomi’s antagonist Elizabeth Thurman in high quality screencaptures, starting with the first three episodes. Enjoy.

With no news on “Constellation” (Apple TV+ is not listing it right now among its more recent premieres) and the dual strike doing adding to the film industry standing still, there’s nothing happening right now to report on. So let’s just go back to the beginning and revisit how it all started. I’ve added additional public appearances pictures from 2009 to 2010 – the time Noomi rose to international fame thanks to the “Millennium” trilogy’s success. As the films released throughout Europe throughout 2010, Noomi was a rising star at various film festivals and started picking up accolades for her performance. For a complete list of updates, have a look at the list below.