How a pair of handcuffs impressed noir crime thriller ‘Black Sands’

Actress Aldís Amah Hamilton can thank a police officer — and a pair of handcuffs — for the inspiration behind “Black Sands,” the Icelandic crime noir collection premiering July 20 on Viaplay.

“There may be an Icelandic detective [Ragnar Jónsson] that has been on the drive for 30-something years and he had this concept [for ‘Black Sands’] for the longest time,” Hamilton, 32, advised The Submit. “He wished to put in writing a TV collection revolving round a younger male police officer … and we truly met and began speaking whereas I used to be doing one other collection and he was coaching me to handcuff individuals.

“He shared his thought with me and I actually favored it and mentioned, ‘Have you ever ever thought-about this police officer as a lady?’ He mentioned, ‘No, I haven’t. I’ll assume on it.’ A couple of days later we met for espresso so he might decide my mind about what it’s prefer to be a lady.”

That assembly resulted in Hamilton and Jónsson co-writing “Black Sands.” Because the eight-episode collection (already renewed) opens, police detective Aníta Elínardóttir (Hamilton) is driving again from Reykjaík to her distant hometown after 15 years away from her verbally abusive mom (Steinunn Ólína Þorsteinsdóttir) from whom she’s been estranged.

“[Aníta] is sensible, educated and pushed however on the similar time very immature in sure elements of being an grownup,” Hamilton mentioned. “She in all probability didn’t get what she wanted as a toddler … she’s an grownup however has so many poisonous traits of a kid.”

On the best way to her mom’s home, Aníta will get a name from an previous pal, police detective Ragnar (Þór Tulinius), who’s found the lifeless physique of a younger feminine on the black sands of the close by seashore.

The sufferer is a German vacationer who was apparently touring in Iceland alone; however when one other younger lady, additionally German, survives a savage assault close by, it units off the seek for a serial killer.

“We all the time wished to concentrate on foreigners [as the victims],” mentioned Hamilton, who was born in Germany however moved to Iceland together with her mom on the age of two. [Her father is American — “we haven’t met since I was a child,” she said.] “Iceland is a really small nation and we get quite a lot of vacationers, about 1.5 or 2 million a 12 months, and there are solely 360,000 individuals right here. We’re the ‘It Woman.’

“We’ve seen — and it’s one thing that’s a really present dialog in our tradition — that lots of people coming to Iceland who expertise some form of crime don’t get the identical therapy as Icelanders do,” she mentioned. “We had been pondering of this, and there’s actually a case here where two French sisters came to Iceland and one of them was murdered; they had been each attacked however the different sister escaped.

“That’s form of the place we began this journey with the collection.”

Hamilton mentioned the arc for Season 1 modified slightly below the steerage of collection director Baldvin Zophoníasson.

“He took the lead on this as a result of we didn’t have any expertise writing a collection,” she mentioned. “There was one thing lacking within the remaining draft and he mentioned, ‘OK, guys, hear me out, that is what I need to do — I need it to be closely impressed by [the movie] ‘Seven.’ That had been his dream perpetually, and that’s form of how the [Season 1 finale] got here to be.”

Hamilton mentioned she started performing extra by happenstance than by need.

“I lived a really conventional Icelandic life and didn’t essentially need to grow to be an actor,” she mentioned. “I wished to be a singer and a dancer, however transitioned into performing accidentally on the age of 21.” Hamilton hoped to review overseas in China for a 12 months, however met somebody who inspired her to audition for the distinguished Iceland Academy of the Arts.

“I auditioned and obtained in,” she mentioned. “It’s fairly onerous to get in — it’s about an 8 % acceptance price — and I felt like I wanted to present it a shot and that I might all the time do one thing else later.

“I simply haven’t appeared again,” she mentioned. “I used to be a flight attendant for a couple of years after which COVID got here and nobody was flying anymore — and that was my signal to go full-blown into the performing factor.”

Hamilton was the primary particular person of black heritage to be admitted to the academy’s performing program; subsequently, she was the primary particular person of coloration to headline (and co-write) a TV collection in Iceland.

“I used to be nominated for Finest Actress [for ‘Black Sands’] for the Icelandic Emmys, which was a primary for an actress of coloration in Iceland,” she mentioned. “We would like individuals to know that [‘Black Sands’] is so vital in so some ways. It’d change the panorama of how individuals view our nation. In Iceland … every kind of individuals are accepted, and we need to do our half to battle the truth that some individuals really feel unseen right here.

“We’re nonetheless sufficiently small that one [series] could make a ripple within the water.”