Sámi youth TV series Shut Up (Oro Jaska), nominated for 2025 International Emmy® Awards
The nominations were announced by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, featuring 64 nominees across 16 categories from a record 26 countries. And among them is the Sámi youth TV series Shut Up (Oro Jaska), created by Vegard Bjørsmo (Sámi) and Silje Burgin-Borch, nominated for Kids: Live-Action Series.
Shut Up (Oro Jaska) takes place in a small town in the north of Norway and the heart of Sápmi, the community of the indigenous people of the north, the Sámi. Elli Anne gets her life turned upside down when she gets raped and has to find out who did it and how to get justice in a community bound together by traditions and strong family ties. When the local snow cross champion Issat is accused of the rape, it sets in motion a series of events to silence Elli Anne. And for Issat, the accusation threatens his own taboo, that he is queer.
Shut Up (Oro Jaska) is the first Sámi TV series addressing social issues from within and the first high-quality Sámi TV drama to date. The creators had one main principle for the creation process: “Nothing about us without us.” Narrative autonomy and authenticity are hard to achieve for Indigenous storytellers, so the team created a unique writers’ room of young, Sámi, queer voices, led by series creators Silje Bürgin-Borch and Vegard Bjørsmo (Sámi).
The Sámi youth drama series SHUT UP (Oro Jaska) is produced by Alfredfilm, Feelgood SFT and Snowreel, for NRK, with the support of the International Sámi Film Institute (ISFI).
