Trapped

• Baltasar Kormákur's drama series Trapped won the Prix Europa tonight for best television fiction. This is the first time an Icelandic television production has won this prestigious award.

• That said, Kormakur transcends Nordic Noir cliche with some uniquely Icelandic touches, from majestic Everest-style aerial shots of the icy volcanic landscape to the swelling, droning, unsettling score by local hero and former Academy Award nominee Jóhann Jóhannsson (The Theory of Everything, Sicario). Judged on this persuasive opening pitch, Trapped feels like a keeper, superior small-screen comfort food for the dark winter nights ahead.

• The cut-off thing adds a nice new intensity – it’s properly claustrophobic. And the beauty is different – it’s more about nature: grand, scooped-out glacial valleys, icy fjords, a volcanic land that is alive and dangerous. The economic situation adds an uncertain and volatile backdrop. Nordic maybe, but this is also most definitely, and proudly, Icelandic.

• Cinematographer Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson's visuals inevitably send shivers down your spine. In Kormákur's hands, postcard-pretty Iceland doesn't stand a chance: here the storm rages, meter-high snow piles up, and avalanches loom threateningly.

• Because Trapped (Ófærð), even if not entirely flawless given the sheer density of grim secrets in such a tiny village, has every ingredient to captivate fans of crime noir: snow, chunky sweaters, disheveled hair, men whose muttered words are barely intelligible, a violent death, and an unmistakable claustrophobic chill.

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