Swedish-Iranian director Mani Maserrat is with his extensive experience from the film & TV industry known for several successful Swedish TV series and films.

Maserrat made his feature film debut in 2007 with Ciao Bella – a film that springs from his own experience and challenges some of the hidden prejudices in Swedish society. The film was met with great praise and travelled around the globe at some of the major international film festivals; in 2008, the film competed at the Berlin International Film Festival and shortly afterwards Maserrat was nominated to the ‘New Voices/New Visions Grand Jury Prize’ at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2009.

Following his feature film debut, Maserrat went on to direct the lauded SVT series Våra vänners liv (2010) as well as the mini-series Arne Dahl Bad Blood (2012) which became an international success.

In 2013 Maserrat’s second feature film, Vi/Us, premiered to stunning reviews and became part of the main competition at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival of the same year.

Since then, Maserrat has directed the psychological thriller series Modus (2015) for TV4, which met with international acclaim, and his later works include directing the crime/thriller mini-series Box 21 (2020) for Viaplay as well as the second season of Young Wallander (2022) for Netflix.

Maserrat currently has several original projects in development and is the director of the upcoming thriller series Maffia/Mafia for Viaplay.

Buccaneer, the UK-based international content production company behind Irvine Welsh’s Crime, Marcella, The Burning Girls and The Doll Factory, today announces it has partnered with guitar legend Slash for The Crow Girl, the forthcoming drama series based on the #1 international bestselling trilogy of novels by Erik Axl Sund.

Already an Executive Producer on the series, Slash will join composer Adam Price (Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1, Black Adam) in contributing to the soundtrack for The Crow Girl, which is currently in production in Bristol for Paramount+ UK and Ireland.

The Crow Girl (6 x 60”) is a multi-faceted contemporary psychological thriller featuring a cast including Eve Myles (Hijack, Broadchurch, A Very English Scandal), Katherine Kelly (Mr Bates vs the Post Office, Liar, Inside No.9) and Dougray Scott (Irvine Welsh’s Crime, Vigil).

Joining Slash as executive producers are Milly Thomas who adapted the series for the screen, along with Erik Axl Sund, Niclas Salomonsson, Federico Ambrosini, and Tony Wood and Richard Tulk-Hart for Buccaneer.

Charles Martin and Rebecca Rycroft are both directors of the series with Andy Mosse serving as producer.

Slash says, “I fell in love with Erik Axl Sund’s novel, The Crow Girl and was really excited to partner up with Buccaneer to produce it. There’s an amazing cast and crew hard at work now to bring the harrowingly dark and suspenseful story to life as a limited series. It looks amazing!”

“Working with Slash has been a privilege. He knew Erik Axl Sund’s powerhouse of a trilogy before we did and brings an amazing insight to it; working with an artist of such standing from a different medium has massively elevated the work” said Tony Wood, co CEO of Buccaneer.

Click ‘Read More’ below to read the full article in Deadline

Hans Rosenfeldt’s Ronja the Robber’s Daughter (Ronja Rövardotter) premiered on March 28 to great reviews.

“Ronja the Robber’s Daughter is loaded with a new kind of darkness.”
– SVT

“The new TV series Ronja the Robber’s Daughter is lavish and medieval-dark, but also contemporary in terms of language and special effects. A well-played adventure with a storm of emotions. Love and friendship, hatred and vengeance against a breathtakingly beautiful backdrop of natural lyricism. The first part leaves you wanting more.”
– Dagens Nyheter

“Rosenfeldt has modernized the story in ways that are obvious and expected today. There is a social conscience, the issue of robbery is problematized, background stories and traumatizing events play a more prominent role, and it’s obvious that they’ve considered gender and diversity. […] The new Ronja the Robber’s Daughter is a blend of magnificent natural lyricism and a bit of appropriately dark and scary family fantasy that maintains high quality.“
– Aftonbladet

“The series creators have been faithful to Lindgren’s spirit and unique storytelling style, while also spicing up the story with ‘modern’ elements, but preserving the unique Scandinavian style, culture, and societal portrayal. There is never any doubt that the series is a genuinely Scandinavian product that could not be recreated in an ‘Americanized’ manner. […] Without hesitation, we award a special recommendation […] to a series that impresses, entertains, and will continue to fascinate young and old alike.”
– Ljud och Bild

Anders de la Motte’s The Mountain King, is one among four other crime titles that has been shortlisted for the newly founded Norwegian crime award Glasskniven. The award is given to the best translated crime novel published in Norway in the last three years.

The Mountain King is the first installment in the bestselling Leo Asker series, and the jury praises it in the following way: “Anders de la Motte writes wistfully beautifully. He has a language that flows easily, with an underlying nerve that spreads beyond the action. The story is dark but still fresh, with things happening in the shadows that could scare the living daylight out of most people. The book is composed with a lot of action and intrigue, but the interest is maintained throughout the novel. This was simply a unique reading feast and a thrilling mystery, with condensed action, written in a literary language that few other crime writers can boast.”

The winner will be announced the 15th of May.

Two best friends
A girls’ trip to Ibiza
One night that changes everything…

Charlotte Vinge is famous throughout Norway for her low-carb cookery shows and self-branded merchandise. She is the face of “having it all”. When she meets Bianka Langeland, the two hit it off straight away. Bianka is creative and artistic, she makes Charlotte feel a little looser and wilder. The women quickly become inseparable.

But when Charlotte suggests a girls’ weekend in Ibiza, their friendship takes a darker turn. What should have been a trip full of sun, sea and cocktails soon becomes a living nightmare.

Can what happened on holiday stay there? Or will the events from this weekend ricochet through Charlotte’s perfectly planned life back in Oslo? Girl Friends is a dark and addictive glam-noir thriller about toxic friendship, passion, and murder.

Kalled Mustonen was born and raised in Stockholm. Growing up with a Finnish mother and Syrian father makes him native in both Swedish and Finnish. Between 2000 and 2002, he started his career in acting by deepen his skills at the renowned Scenstudion. Short after that, he made his debut in Daniel Espinosa’s debut film Babylonsjukan, starring as the male lead.

He is currently starring in Taelgia, streaming on SVT Play. And can soon be seen in the drama series I dina händer, soon to premier on Netflix.

Ia Genberg has been shortlisted for the 2024 International Booker Prize for her critically acclaimed novel, The Details. In connection with the book being longlisted last month, the jury said the following: “Ia Genberg writes with a remarkably sharp eye about a series of messy relationships between friends, family and lovers. Using, as she says, “details, rather than information”, she gives us not simply the “residue of life presented in a combination of letters” but an evocation of contemporary Stockholm and a moving portrait of her narrator. She has at times a melancholic eye, but her wit and liveliness constantly break through.”

The prestigious prize is awarded annually for the finest single work of fiction from around the world which has been translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland. The winner will be announced on May 21st.

The scientist, author, and science writer Emma Frans has been given the publishing house Natur & Kultur’s Popular Science Award. She receives the prize for “her broad and lively communication of research and science.” Natur & Kultur’s Popular Science Award has been presented since 2017 to people who successfully reach the broad public with their research.

The motivation reads as follows:

“With her multifaceted and knowledgeable participation in the societal discussion, Emma Frans has contributed to deepening the understanding of research and the role of the researcher. Her work helps us all think critically and understand how we can use science to make fact-based decisions.”

The award ceremony will take place at Södra teatern in Stockholm the 14th of May.