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In Monster Scripted’s seven-episode series “Afterglow,” hailing from Norway, Ester – mother, wife and a friend – finds out she has cancer. But instead of giving in to pain, she “demands joy,” actress Nina Ellen Ødegård told Variety at Canneseries after its premiere in main competition. REinvent handles sales.

“She gets desperate, in a way, and I find it so true,” she says about her spirited character who refuses to be victimized. Ødegård, also a regular in supernatural Nordic noir “Seizure,” embraced – and loved – Ester’s failings.

“After seeing the first episodes again, I thought: ‘I am so rude!’ But we wanted to show her being as human as possible, so that others can hopefully recognize themselves in her struggle. I haven’t experienced illness [knocks on wood], but when I became a mother, I was also obnoxious to my friends. I always felt like I didn’t have enough time. Once you experience something life-changing,...