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CULTURE

What you need to know about the first Swedish-language Netflix original series

If you're a fan of Scandinavian noir or simply looking for a fun way to improve your Swedish, mark April 5th in your calendar, because the first Swedish-language Netflix original series will premiere on that date.

Published: 1 April 2019 12:31 CEST
What you need to know about the first Swedish-language Netflix original series
The head writer of The Bridge has penned the screenplay for the series. Photo: AP Photo/Matt Rourke/TT

Störst av allt, or Quicksand as it's known in English-speaking countries, is based on the multiple award-winning book of the same name by Malin Persson Giolito.

The story opens with a shocking mass shooting at a school in the affluent Djursholm suburb of Stockholm. Eighteen-year-old Maja, whose boyfriend and best friend were both killed in the attack, is soon on trial for murder. 

READ ALSO: Six addictive Swedish TV series to binge-watch that aren't Nordic noir

The series explores Maja's relationship with the wealthy but troubled Sebastian through flashbacks as the events that led up to the shooting are slowly revealed.

“When a mass shooting takes place at a prep school in Stockholm's wealthiest suburb, a normal high school student, Maja Norberg, finds herself on trial for murder. When the events of that tragic day are revealed, so too are the private details about her relationship with Sebastian Fagerman and his dysfunctional family,” Netflix's blurb of the show reads.

See the English-language trailer below.

The series will be available to watch in 190 countries, with six episodes lasting 45 minutes each and all of which will be on Netflix from April 5th.

The book was an international success, published in 29 countries, and with a screenplay from Bron (The Bridge) writer Camilla Ahlgren, anticipation for the series is high. Filmed in Sweden and Croatia, the first two episodes were shown at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.

Actress Hanna Ardéhn plays protagonist Maya, having previously appeared in the Swedish series 30 grader i februari, which depicts the lives of Swedes who move overseas to Thailand. And Melodifestivalen fans are likely to recognize Felix Sandman in the role of Maya's boyfriend Sebastian; the role is Sandman's acting debut after rising to fame as part of boyband FO&O and later coming second in last year's Melodifestivalen song contest.

Netflix first launched in Sweden in 2012, and since then has invested significantly in international films and series, and in original content.

READ ALSO: Amazon to make TV show based on Swedish artist's hit dystopian books

Member comments

  1. Mistaking Djurgården for Djursholm?

    ”The story opens with a shocking mass shooting at a school in the affluent Djurgården suburb of Stockholm.”

    I wouldn’t call Djurgården a suburb, and as I recall it, without actually having read the book, the shooting took place in Djursholm. That also happens to be where the author grew up. ?

  2. Thanks for spotting that Niklas! It was indeed a typo and the story is set in the Djursholm suburb 🙂 We’ve updated the article now.

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HISTORY

Do Taylor Swift’s ancestors really come from a small parish in rural Sweden?

A community history group has tried to get to the bottom of a persistent genealogy rumour surrounding US mega star Taylor Swift and a small parish in north-central Sweden.

Published: 15 May 2024 11:49 CEST
Do Taylor Swift's ancestors really come from a small parish in rural Sweden?

Lodged in the mountains between Östersund and Norway, Offerdal in the region of Jämtland is home to some 2,000 people. It may also be the ancestral home of Taylor Swift.

Or maybe not. It’s not entirely clear. Bear with us.

“It’s been written about in several newspapers since as long ago as 2014. Because specifically Offerdal and a village called Söderåsen are mentioned in those articles, we’ve been curious about this for a while,” Sara Swedenmark, chair of the Offerdal Community Association, told The Local.

READ ALSO:

When Swift decided to launch her Eras Tour in Sweden (she’s set to perform in Stockholm on May 17th-19th), the group decided to look into her possible connection with Offerdal, which is mentioned on several American genealogy sites, but always without reference to a source.

During their research, they found two people from the area who could possibly be related to Swift. One of them is Olof Thorsson, who is the main person rumoured to be one of her ancestors.

“We can see that there are people who connect them, but in one place the line is broken because there’s a man who married several times. So we haven’t found a direct line of descent, but we’re not saying it doesn’t exist. Because we’re talking about around 1,200 people in 400 years, there could be other possibilities,” said Swedenmark.

A church in the parish of Offerdal. Photo: Offerdal/Wikimedia Commons

Thorsson travelled with his family in 1641 to New Sweden – a Swedish colony in what today are Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland – on board the ship Kalmar Nyckel. He is said to have committed a crime in Sweden and was sent abroad for penal labour.

“We haven’t found which crime he allegedly committed, even though there are conviction records from this time, which makes us doubt whether he actually lived here,” said Swedenmark.

“Another person who was banished from the country around this time in Offerdal received it as punishment for having put witchcraft on the neighbour’s cattle.”

An oil painting by Jacob Hägg, depicting the ship Kalmar Nyckel. Photo: Sjöfartsmuséet/Wikimedia Commons

But they also found another possible connection with Swift: a man known as Jöns The Black Smith Andersson, his wife Maria and their daughter Brita, who travelled to New Sweden in 1654.

“There seem to be certain relations here via half siblings in the early 18th century,” said Swedenmark, urging readers to reach out if they have more information. “The Church of Sweden started keeping population records in the later half of the 17th century, so it’s not completely straightforward to track down roots from this time.”

So in other words, nothing concrete that confirms that Swift does indeed descend from Offerdal, and the parish is not the only place in the world that’s purportedly connected to the artist. Genealogy company Ancestry claims she’s related to the American poet Emily Dickinson, and according to My Heritage she’s also related to France’s King Louis XIV and US actor Johnny Depp.

Offerdal, by contrast, is rather less grand. But what might life have been like at the time?

“Offerdal in the 17th century was an uneasy place, because Jämtland was being torn between the Swedish king and the Danish-Norwegian king,” explained Swedenmark. “There were a lot of wars in close succession and farms were seized if the owner swore their allegiance to the ‘wrong’ king. There were around 30 villages and 600 people in the parish.”

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