Given away Christian Strand was adopted from Indonesia as a baby, and he has never looked back - until now. He fears the truth about his own background.

Given away

Christian Strand was adopted from Indonesia as a baby, and he has never looked back - until now. He fears the truth about his own background.

We meet a different and more vulnerable Christian Strand than the presenter we know him as. In this series, he enters his own adoption story for the very first time: Is what he has been told about himself true?

Digging into his own life story turns out to be a much tougher process than Christian had imagined. Over the course of the series, he goes through a major change.

- I go from joking about being adopted and thinking that it doesn't matter, to wanting to find out who I really am, says Christian.

Didn't want to ask about the adoption

Christian was always afraid that his parents would be hurt if he asked what they knew about his Indonesian background.

- I was afraid of seeming ungrateful for the life I had been given here in Norway and that they would be upset if I asked too many questions about where my life started, says Christian.

Christian thinks he has had a very nice and secure upbringing. He was initially skeptical about doing something that could force him to change his own identity and the story he had about himself.

Different experiences with adoption

In the series, Christian is challenged by others who have a completely different experience of adoption and being adopted, namely Priyangika Samanthie and Magnus Helio Holen.

Priyangika Samanthie has long worked to uncover what she believes are objectionable conditions in the adoption field and to get the Norwegian authorities to launch an investigation into it. In the series, we join her when she visits her country of origin, Sri Lanka. There she has started a legal process to get proof that her adoption was illegal. She challenges Christian to explore his whole story and to give his biological mother a place in his consciousness. Unlike Christian, Magnus Helio Holen has done just this.

After searching for a long time and submitting a DNA test, he found his biological mother in Brazil. In the series, we join him when he travels there to visit her and the entire extended family for the first time. Christian, on the other hand, does not want to take a DNA test and search like Magnus.

The adoption field under scrutiny

At the same time that Christian digs into his own adoption history, a lot is happening in the adoption field both in Norway and internationally. Revelations about kidnappings, human trafficking and falsification of papers appear in the media.

Gitt away touches on an inflamed theme, while at the same time addressing some of the big questions in life. Christian Strand hopes the series can inspire everyone - adopted or not:

- I hope the series can give people the courage to face their greatest fears, and that they realize that everything is not as black and white as one would like to think at first. I also hope that many people find it exciting to follow me all the way to Indonesia - the country of my birth where I haven't been since I was born.