Aldís Amah Hamilton on Black Sands’ Final Season, Trauma, Motherhood & Tackling the Stories We’re Afraid to Tell

Have you ever pressed “Play” on something entirely unexpected and found yourself instantly enthralled?

That’s precisely what happened when I tuned in to the critically acclaimed, award-winning Icelandic series Black Sands.

With its richly drawn, complex characters, gothic noir vibes, and stunning cinematography and setting, the crime-mystery drama has a quiet allure that sneaks up on you.

And ahead of the American debut of its sophomore season, we had the distinct pleasure of chatting with creator, writer, and lead Aldís Amah Hamilton about the season’s powerful themes and exploration.

Black Sands is a fascinating crime drama, but on its surface, it also delves into its characters and doesn’t shy away from a deep exploration of how trauma and certain experiences can shape people.

The first season does an incredible job of bringing that to light, and the sophomore season builds on it further.

Aníta is not only diving into a new mystery but also grappling with her grief from the first season, complicated feelings about the man she loved, and new difficulties as a new mother.

And we were fortunate enough to dive into all of that with Hamilton, so check out our interview below.

I love the show. It was like a slow binge for me, catching up, but it was riveting. So, congratulations, of course, on this final season making its International debut!

Thank you.

Part of the reason I love this series is that it explores themes like generational trauma. The first season obviously touches on that a lot, but what was your goal in what you wanted to explore during this second season?

It’s a little weird, maybe. But, yes, we’re still on the same kind of topic.

Not just generational, but of course, for the second season in particular, we’re also just experiencing real-life trauma, and not being able to resolve it as it should be.

But for me, I really wanted to explore motherhood in that setting, which is very morbid in a way. But the fact is, all over the world, women, or pregnant people, are going through absolutely horrifying scenarios.

A lot of people are being traumatized while they’re going through this incredible shift in their bodies and everything that comes after. And a part of it is, I guess, maybe my own fear if I do become a parent.

I think a lot of people share that fear, and a little bit of how hard it is to have discussions around it [motherhood]. People have extremely positive things to say about it, of course, but there are so many legitimate reasons to be scared.

And we all have our demons and our traumas to deal with. Having a child and going through all of the things that come with childbirth — I feel like that’s the one thing everyone agrees upon. It’s going to make you confront yourself. And if it doesn’t, it’s basically going to break you.

This is an extreme setting, and for the drama, that’s kind of what you have to do. But it’s just something that I was very excited about exploring.

Of course, I’m not the only writer on the show, but I can say that this particular storyline was something that I was quite invested in.

Yes, I agree!

We saw in the first season that Aníta had such a complicated relationship with her own mother.

I love that the second season is digging into: what does motherhood and trying to approach it look like when you weren’t necessarily content with your own experience as a child? How do you break the cycle?

Of course, this season we’ll see the post-partum depression angle, too, and it’s so raw. People don’t like to talk about those things or explore them because they aren’t pretty.

Exactly. It’s not pretty. And if you throw some grief in there as well, I mean, just your hormones alone.

Of course, I’m just speaking from what I’ve read and deep-dived into, and what people have told me, having not given birth myself. But the hormones alone will throw you absolutely through the wringer. But then pop in some grief, and it’s intense stuff.

It’s very heightened. It’s not something that we really want to talk about. And it was quite harrowing to read some of the stories people were posting.

Even just an old newspaper article I found about a woman in Iceland, which is such a tiny community. This is just not something you want to speak out about openly.

But there was this woman who was anonymously talking about her grief because she recognized and knew she had absolutely not given her child the love and care and upbringing it deserved.

And she just knew she could never do that. She didn’t want that child, and she admits to it. And that story was one of the things that hit me the hardest. It’s silly to say, but it just felt kind of close because it’s in Iceland, someone here, do I know this person? But, yeah, it’s [a subject] people don’t want to talk about.

What I enjoyed about Black Sands is that there are so many cross-cultural elements. I’m sure some things may be unique to Iceland, but otherwise, it’s a universal experience and series.

I don’t think it’s uniquely Icelandic at all. I think it’s uniquely human.

The series also shakes things up so much! The first season was pretty intense and thrilling, and now the second season comes around, and it’s like “Oh yeah, we’re going to go even harder with this, okay!”

Let me pull out my earrings… [Laughs]

The second season expands the universe a bit more. Was it intentional to broaden the scope to focus on more characters? We’re digging into Tómas and Gústi, his daughter Jonna…

Yeah, definitely. From my perspective, I really wanted to actually put other characters in the front. I really want to push them, maybe even in front of Aníta. She is, of course, still kind of our glue and the one that ties everything together.

It still revolves around her, this newborn child, and this dysfunctional life. But yes, we really want to expand. I mean, Fríða is a favorite of all of ours, and we really wanted her to have a bigger role in this season.

And Tómas as well. It was really nice to go into this kind of side world that doesn’t exactly reflect Aníta and Fríða, but is so completely different.

They’re going through something a little bit similar. I don’t want to give away spoilers, but you have some similar aspects or themes, and they’re going through them quite differently.

That was something that was really enjoyable to do, and also just to get a break from all the horrific things that are going on across the street.

So yes, we really did want to dive in more, and another absolute favorite, Steffi, Gústi’s wife, she’s an absolute favorite of mine as well. She’s one of the characters who’s just so familiar to all of us in so many ways. There’s nothing inherently bad about her, but she’s not an outstanding person, either.

And I just really enjoyed writing every single scene with her. She becomes this … just doing basically the natural thing in the whole situation, which is focusing on the person who is basically the biggest victim in all of this.

I’m not sure we gave her a lot of insight into her backstory, but I still feel like we were able to expand on her personality and her character a bit more. All of that was very enjoyable.

And, of course, even this season, we also see that Salomon haunts the narrative. He’s really great at that, especially as more questions start to arise regarding his capture. Can you talk a bit about that?

I mean, he stays in my life too! [Laughs] He’s my partner. So he is very much all over this.

His aura and everything that he left behind, obviously, kind of just floats around the entire village. And that was one of the things we originally really wanted people to feel more, but then we just kind of had to boil it down.

But originally, when we started writing the second season, we were also going to focus on just how a small community deals with the trauma of having one of their own, one of their most trusted members, commit such heinous crimes.

But that was the storyline that we just — at the end of the day, you gotta kill your babies or whatever they say. And we just had to kind of let that storyline go.

Instead, we just focused on how this affected everybody, all the characters. You’ll have a scene where people are not talking to Aníta about it, but they’re talking between themselves, even. And there’s just this shattering of what you thought to be true in your own reality.

You know? We thought we knew him. And does that mean that everything he said was wrong or a lie? Or can both things be true? Could he have been a good friend or been a good whatever, and also this other person?

So yes, I mean, his being there is basically just these people asking themselves these really big questions of what is true and can people really have these many faces and sides.

Yeah, yeah! It sounds weird to say, but I loved their dynamic. It’s such a really warped one.

Going back to the trauma thing, what is the saying? Trauma begets trauma. It can make monsters out of men, so to speak.

I’m just so glad you said that word, because one of the principles of this entire show is the de-monsterization. I’m not sure if that translates as well as it does in Icelandic, but the de-monsterization of people.

And we really, especially with Salomon, and even a little bit of what we have this season with the backstory with the home and everything that happens with the older brother — we really want to always highlight that people are not born inherently evil or bad.

Maybe some viewers will even go as far as to think, “Okay, all of these people were born into this world as beautiful, innocent babies and became these awful people.”

Then we have Erla, this tiny little baby being born into the exact same circumstances of extreme horror and trauma. And we want people to wonder, will putting her in the correct environment, which is possibly what happens at the end, or not, but will that change her? And will that help?

No one is born a monster. Now we have this child who was born into this situation…

Why do you think Black Sands resonates with people, including internationally?

Well, as you said, I don’t think any of this is inherently Icelandic.

Sure, the setting is a little bit different. We are a very small country; we have very small communities all over the island, so sure, in that sense, it’s going to be extremely Icelandic, but we’ve heard stories from all over the world of similar things happening.

I think even though countries have very different cultures and we have very different histories, globally, there’s just this understanding of emotional intelligence. Even though there’s a lot of stuff going on in the world, collectively we are always moving in the same direction.

I imagine a lot of countries and a lot of cultures are kind of going through something similar, where they’re looking at their past, and they’re just like, “Okay, we need to actually talk about what happened.”

Not too many decades ago, it was just about fixing, just like putting something on the wound, fix it, like, “Okay, now everyone, and everyone is fine, right?” We’re not fine. We need to talk about what happened.

So that’s probably why this resonates a lot with people. There are some people who also don’t get it, and maybe don’t want to get it, and feel it’s too dark, too difficult to watch.

I get that, I really do, because it’s uncomfortable. It’s really uncomfortable to have these discussions and letting your mind wander to these places. But for those who are interested in these topics, this might be the right show for them.

These topics, these experiences, they’re so universal. Most people can relate to this concept of burying things and not speaking about them, and to silence.

Yeah, then there’s the intense shame that I think we don’t talk about often enough, especially towards mothers and parents—the shame of being perhaps disconnected from the role and from your child.

Here in Iceland, which is really nice, after you have a child, someone from the hospital will check in with you. We call it Mother’s Protection here, which is perfect. There will be someone, the midwife, they’ll follow you after the birth as well. You’ll get checklists every now and then to make sure you’re feeling okay.

But you can fall through the cracks, and this [Aníta] is kind of one of those situations, and there is so much shame surrounding just saying out loud, “I’m not sure I love my child” or “I’m afraid I’ll hurt my child” or stuff like that. We kind of want to portray a person who is so inherently full of shame.

She’s full of shame in season one, and then having someone like that have a child and experience this tremendous horror. Plus wanting someone who’s gone, having feelings for someone who did something bad, not having the same connection that she wants with this child, all of that stuff together —

I think a lot of people maybe can relate to these things in a way as well.

It’s the final season of this great series. So, what’s been the most rewarding part about this entire experience? And what do you want people to take away from Black Sands?

Oh, there are so many incredible things that would perhaps revolve more around just the shooting part of it, and shooting during COVID, and all on how interesting that was!

On a personal level, I think it’s just the opportunities, aside from maybe meeting my partner, but the opportunities of being able to talk with people like yourself, and connecting with people when they send messages on social media, that have moved them in some way.

I’m the kind of person who sometimes, maybe a bit too many times, loses a lot of faith in humanity.

Knowing that, even if it just helps three or four people open up about something that they went through, or clean house, or shed some light into their closets, or whatever, even just knowing that I was a part of creating something like that, creating a space where people could look inwards, and maybe heal in some way, shape, or form —

I think that has got to be the most beautiful thing this has given me, and that’s something that definitely fuels me to continue telling stories like this.

Black Sands is a remarkable series that balances family dynamics and character exploration as well as its mystery, crime-solving, and intrigue.

With Iceland’s sprawling, breathtaking landscape and visually arresting cinematography, the series is gripping. And we’ll be diving into covering the second and final season.

Black Sands Season 2 premieres on Thursday, May 14, with the first two episodes. You can stream them via Viaplay.

If you like series like Mare of Eastown, Mindhunter, Criminal Minds: Evolution, The Valhalla Murders, and Happy Face, check it out!

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