Danish director’s final TV series to be premiered later this month by Danish pubcaster DR.

Danish director Kathrine Windfeld has died at 48 after a short illness. According to local press, she suffered from a brain tumour.

Windfeld, whose latest television series (as conceptual director) The Team (Mord uden grænser) – a European DR-ZDF-SVT-ORF-ARTE co-production starring Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen – will be premiered by Danish pubcaster DR on Feb 22, left her imprint both in feature films and television drama.

“With her insisting power and energy she was on the threshold of realising the full potential of an already impressive career,” wrote managing director Henrik Bo Nielsen of the Danish Film Institute. “Her infectious humour and sometimes furious energy will be remembered and missed.”

Educated at the National Polish Film School in Lodz, adding a MA in Film Production at the Northern Film School in Leeds, Windfeld made several shorts and documentaries while working as assistant director on DR series including the Emmy winner, Unit One (Rejseholdet/2003) and Ørnen (The Eagle/2003).

Her directorial break was Swedish pubcaster SVT’s series The Crown Princess (Kronprinsessan/2007), followed up by the rest of Danish author Hanne-Vibeke Holst’s trilogy. She then returned to DR, where she directed episodes of The Killing (Forbrydelsen/2012), Rita (2013) and The Bridge (Broen/2013).

Windfeld also found time to make two feature films: The Escape (Flugten/2009), about a Danish journalist (Iben Hjejle) who is taken hostage by a terror group in Afghanistan, and Hamilton: In the Interest of the Nation (Hamilton: I nationens intresse/2012), a Swedish spy thriller starring Mikael Persbrandt.

She is survived by her 14-year-old son.

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