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Swedish Docudrama: In the Borderlands of Fact and Fiction

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Docudrama on European Television

Part of the book series: Palgrave European Film and Media Studies ((PEFMS))

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Abstract

Sweden is a comparatively small country with a dominant public service television broadcaster and the national traits of its television docudramas therefore need to be set in perspective. This article is a first step in the process of mapping the development of Swedish docudrama, with a survey approach prioritised over detailed analysis. An initial overview of the docudrama discourse and research in Sweden over time is followed by a summary of the Swedish television context. The examples discussed are chosen in order to offer wider perspectives on what is a multifaceted field of productions. In order to address some specific aspects revealed in more recent Swedish docudramas, three productions will finally be highlighted.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All translations from the original Swedish are mine.

  2. 2.

    In relation to the research for this survey, the first experimental searches on all the keywords discussed, entered on both websites referred above, were performed on 2 May 2012, while the last were performed on 5 February 2015.

  3. 3.

    In Swedish, Jansson uses the concepts ‘faktionsepiken’, ‘den ickefiktiva epiken’, and ‘den fiktiva epiken’.

  4. 4.

    The articles are in English and were ‘originally presented at a seminar organised by the Institute of Literature, Media and Cultural Studies the University of Southern Denmark in March 2007’ (Johansen and Søndergaard 2010, p. 7).

  5. 5.

    ‘Nordic Noir’ (also called ‘Scandinavian Noir’) has its roots in Scandinavian crime fiction. Characterised by a realistic style and a morally complex mood, focusing on the day-to-day work of the police, with protagonists who are far from heroic detectives, ‘Nordic Noir’ has become a genre in its own right, influencing screenwriters far beyond the Scandinavian Peninsula. Recent ‘Nordic Noir’ productions such as Brottet (The Killing, 2007–), Wallander (2008–), and Bron (The Bridge, 2011–), are related to the development of Scandinavian crime novels, film, and television dramas more generally. Wallander can serve as a clarifying example. From 1991 to 2013, the Swedish author Henning Mankell published crime novels with Inspector Kurt Wallander as protagonist, and from 1995 to 2007 these novels were adapted as Swedish film and television dramas. In 2005, the character Wallander also started to appear in Swedish spin-off film and television dramas based on developments of the character and not on the actual novels. In 2008, the progression continued with the British adaptation of Mankell’s novels (2008–), in which Wallander is played by Kenneth Branagh. While the earlier-mentioned Swedish spin-off versions have had their prime success abroad (not least in Germany) the British adaptations are quite successful in Sweden.

  6. 6.

    This shift is frequently described as taking place during the period 1978–79 (see, for example, Furhammar 1995, p. 193).

  7. 7.

    The ‘transit transportations’ (in Swedish ‘transiteringstransporter’ and/or ‘permittenttrafik’) refer to the controversial German transports of soldiers through neutral Sweden from July 1940 to August 1943 (see, for example, Zetterberg 1986, pp. 97–118). These trains were labelled ‘tysktåg’ (‘German Trains’) and the transit transportations were heavily debated and criticised not only during the 1941 ‘Midsummer Crises’.

  8. 8.

    The prologue is, however, not included in the first SVT TV1 broadcast of the docudrama (1988). My presumption is that it was added in connection to the release of the Häger and Villius DVD Andra världskriget och Sverige (The World War II and Sweden, 2008), including the docudrama Fyra dagar som skakade Sverige—Midsommarkrisen 1941 (Four Days that Shook Sweden – The Midsummer Crisis 1941, SVT TV1,1988, dir. Olle Häger) as well as two other Häger and Villius productions dealing with aspects and consequences of the Second World War, G som i hemlig (G as in Secret, SVT Kanal 1, 1994, dir. Olle Häger), and Sista båten till Jurkalne (The Last Boat to Jurkalne, SVT TV1, 1991, dir. Olle Häger).

  9. 9.

    Agger (2013, pp. 233–251), Jansson (2006, pp. 71–73), Olsson and Moen (1986), and Peyron (1986) all discuss the TV series Jane Horney from different angles. Sejr, however, is only mentioned in Agger, Olsson and Moen, and Peyron.

  10. 10.

    With 70 years having passed since the disappearance of Jane Horney, these classified Danish documents ought to be made public (Olsson and Moen 1986, p. 322).

  11. 11.

    A previous film on the murder in Yngsjö was Yngsjömordet (The Yngsjö Murder, 1966, dir. Arne Mattsson). This adaptation is based on the novel Yngsjömordet (The Yngsjö Murder, Lyttkens 1951). Its script is by the actress Eva Dahlbeck, probably most recognised for her work with Ingmar Bergman. Initially produced for cinematic distribution this film was not broadcast on Swedish television until 1992, six years after the broadcast of the TV series Skånska mord.

  12. 12.

    These presentations are generally cut when the docudramas are released on DVDs and/or when they are made available on the Swedish public service open access website.

  13. 13.

    Swedish courts use a different judicial system to, for example, British courts, and don’t use an actual jury. It is difficult to find a good translation of the Swedish term nämndeman/nämndemän (who, for example, also has/have the right to oppose a verdict). Having had ‘layman judges’ suggested, I have settled on ‘lay judges’ as most accurate.

  14. 14.

    Since 1993, in Sweden the crime brott mot griftefriden (violating the peace of the grave) has a limitation time of five years.

  15. 15.

    Jansson discusses Tamas’ book as a drama documentary and Marciman’s mini-series as a docudrama (2006, pp. 183–188).

  16. 16.

    Carl Michael Bellman is already mentioned in relation to Häger and Villius’ Sammansvärjningen (The Conspiracy, SVT TV2, 1986, dir. Per Sjöberg) and Innan skottet föll—Bilder från Gustav IIIs och Bellmans dagar (Before the Shooting—Images from the Days of Gustav III and Bellman, SVT TV2, 1986, dir. Olle Häger and Hans Villius). In these productions Bellman appears as an already renowned, yet poor, fringe figure.

  17. 17.

    In Sweden, Peter Birro is primarily recognised as scriptwriter of televised fiction drama series with a social realistic approach, who uses the city of Gothenburg as a recurrent setting.

  18. 18.

    The Swedish Penal Code has of course been reformed several times since 1864.

  19. 19.

    Miming to recordings of the actual voices of those involved was also used in the British production The Arbor (2010, dir. Clio Barnard), portraying the late playwright Andrea Dunbar. It was, however, produced 5 years after Swärd’s Vägen hem.

  20. 20.

    ‘Guldbaggegalan’ (The Golden Bug Gala) is the Swedish film industry’s equivalent of the American Academy Awards. Instead of an Oscar the winner of each category of the Guldbaggegala is rewarded with a ‘Golden Bug’.

  21. 21.

    Quotation from the DVD version of Ninas resa (00.32.26–00.33.07). Nina’s voice-over, above in my translation, is here accompanied with archival footage from the Warsaw Ghetto.

  22. 22.

    In these reconstructed scenes the actor Rüdiger Vogler plays the part of Willy Wist, primarily in voice-over. For further discussions of A Film Unfinished see, for example: Böser (2012), Liebman (2011), and Prager (2015).

  23. 23.

    International recognition and awards for Ninas resa: ‘Yad Vashem Award’, Yad Vashem, Israel (2006); ‘Best Director’, Golden Rooster Film Festival Hangzhou, China (2006); ‘Best of Fest’, Palm Springs International Film Festival, US (2007); ‘Best International Dramatic Feature Film’, Vancouver Jewish Film Festival, Canada (2007); ‘Best Narrative Feature’, Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, US (2008) (SFI 2015g).

  24. 24.

    All three volumes in Leif G.W. Persson’s literary trilogy Välfärdsstatens fall (Fall of the Welfare State) have the subheading En roman om ett brott (A Novel about a Crime). See: Mellan sommarens längtan och vinterns köld: En roman om ett brott (Before Summer’s Longing and Winter’s End: A Novel about a Crime, 2002); En annan tid ett annat liv: En roman om ett brott (Another Time, Another Life: a Novel about a Crime, 2003); Faller fritt som i en dröm: En roman om ett brott (Falling Freely, as in a Dream: a Novel about a Crime, 2007).

  25. 25.

    Persson’s character Evert Bäckström has also been transformed into Everett Backstrom in the American TV series Backstrom created by Hart Hanson and broadcast from 2015. On the poster Fox describes Backstrom as ‘brilliant detective, total dick’.

  26. 26.

    After the quotation, which is in Swedish, Persson includes a bracketed reference to Schuhheimer: ‘(Schuhheimer, Bartlett K; Poetry and Reality: The Case of Coincidence between Authors’ Imagination and Empirical Truth; Hammond & Leslie, New Jersey 1975, cit s 263 ff)’ (Persson 1978, p. 7).

  27. 27.

    Quotation from the DVD version of Call Girl (00.00.03–00.00.05).

  28. 28.

    The official trailer of Call Girl, presently available on YouTube.

  29. 29.

    The programme, Kvällsöppet, broadcast by SVT TV2, 3 May 1977, is presently available on YouTube.

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  1. Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Åsa Bergström

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  1. Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann

  2. University of Reading , Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom

    Derek Paget

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Bergström, Å. (2016). Swedish Docudrama: In the Borderlands of Fact and Fiction. In: Ebbrecht-Hartmann, T., Paget, D. (eds) Docudrama on European Television. Palgrave European Film and Media Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-49979-0_7

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