“Maybe the Savior will come back. Even you came back. That’s even more incredible,” her twin brother Bloor tells Jana in episode 1 of My Brother.
Those who watch the four-part mystery thriller will immediately know what they like. Distributed by Trust Nordisk and Filmlance International, a subsidiary of Banijay Entertainment, producer of The Bridge and Caliph, My Brother is an adaptation of the first novel by Karin Smirnoff, who shot to fame when the increasingly famous Swedish screenwriter Karin Arrhenius (Rebecca Martinsson, Blackwater) was invited to write a new installment of Stieg Larsen’s Millennium series. If Lisbeth Salander psychologically embodies Scandinavian noir, Jana Kippo in My Brother is even more noir. She returns to her secluded Smarangel home in the countryside to save her brother Blore, and after being heartbroken in love, she drinks to death.
Inevitably, Yana gradually comes face to face with her own horrifying past, including domestic violence, psychological and sexual abuse, subsequent attempted and attempted murder, religious fanaticism, and a community that folded arms and fabricated hearsay knowing what was going on. She becomes interested in what happened to Maria, the late wife of John, a silent and brooding neighbor with whom she fell in love.
Janna confesses that Brother is “half of my soul.” Otherwise, John’s relationship with her is carnal and her reactions are brutal. “I hope she is suffering now that she is nearing death,” Jana says of her mother.
“Back then, I repressed everything,” Yana confesses to John, but thanks to Arrhenius’ clever teasing, her memories gradually come back, and the memories are so vivid that she flashes back to her again and again, and instead of her teenage self, Yana imagines herself in her late 30s.
As the series begins to ask why she came back, the question ensues as to whether a victim of such abuse can really rebuild a life. You’ll get some answers at the last stage.
“My Brother not only captures the essence of the best-selling novel, but also challenges viewers to confront the complexities of family, memory, love and hate,” Trust Nordisk Managing Director Susan Wendt told Variety while introducing the title at Mipcom 2024.
“My Brother,” directed by Sanna Renken (“The Thin Blue Line,” “Pressure Point”), is an elevated package. “The Thin Blue Line” actor Amanda Jansson will play Jana alongside Jakob Allman (“Helsinki Syndrome,” “Rebecca Martinsson: Arctic Murders”) and Rasmus Johansson.
Produced by Filmlance International. and SamProduktion, Filmpool Nord, and four Nordic public broadcasters (Norway’s NRK, Denmark’s DR, Finland’s Yle, Iceland’s RUV, and Belgium’s Lunanime) My Brother was a blockbuster hit by Swedish pubcaster SVT, with all four episodes aired on SVT on December 26th, with a pretty impressive 1.5 million views (980,000). According to viewership measurement company MMS, free-to-air TV and 309,000 SVT Play) are expected by early January.
My Brother also marks the second Scandinavian Screenplay Award nomination in three years for Arrhenius, who rose to prominence with Rebecca Martinsson (2017-20) and Blackwater. The latter is a nominee for the same award in 2023 and won the Series Mania International Panorama Award for Best Series.
Arrhenius answered questions from Variety shortly after the five finalists for the Nordic Screenplay Award were announced.
“My Brother” is the third recent installment in the series, following “Rebecca Martinsson” (2017-20) and “Blackwater,” in which the heroine confronts her past in the Swedish countryside. Does this reflect personal affinity, or does this context reflect something exaggerated about the human condition? Or both?
Arrhenius: This is almost a coincidence, since these are adaptations of other authors’ books that came to my doorstep. But, of course, there was something in it that intrigued me. And this is a classic trope, where the protagonist returns to his roots, confronts his past, and discovers something about himself. It says something about the human condition and seems like a story you can go back to and relate to. I think we all, to some extent, are always trying to balance the past and the present.
Did you make any major changes when adapting Karin Smirnoff’s novel? If so, why?
yes. Translating a story like this from page to screen required adding and subtracting a lot of things to get to the heart of the story. The world of literature is much more forgiving than film or television, where plots, relationships, and characters have to work and make sense in real time. In a book, you have the freedom to use words however you like, and to tell the story in contradictory or disjointed ways. The book also contains a large amount of darkness and misery, extreme relationships and characters that would not have worked as well as the books in the series. Therefore, I had to look at the world of the story and its soul as a whole and try to recreate the feeling of the book, rather than the scenes themselves.
This series is called the Northern Western. It is a reflection of what I feel is not only the rural background, but also the primal passion expressed in a brutal but concise style… But do you agree?
Yes, that’s an interesting explanation. However, I don’t often write by genre. I focus on the characters, their relationships, and the real world that is real to them. What matters is that it’s rooted in our world, true and real. Writing a story is about creating a world that the audience can enter into. Of course, you can also set your story in a more genre-specific world, as in this case.
The structure is carefully calculated, with psychological suspense built by Yana’s inability to fully remember her traumatic past, and her future path and relationship with John revealed only to the audience, as well as to Yana herself. Could you please comment?
Exactly, yes, that’s how the story is constructed. By slowly unraveling and revealing the mysteries inside and outside of Yana. Past and present
Congratulations to “My Brother” on its “huge success” at SVT Play, in the words of the Swedish website. Does this success suggest anything about the interest of Swedish viewers?
thank you. Maybe you have a desire or interest in a complex story. It doesn’t have to be easy to understand in theme or delivery. But I really don’t know. A good story is always a good story. And I think you should never underestimate your audience.
Over your 25-year career, have you noticed any changes in what producers and broadcasters are looking for in terms of scripts?
Hmm, probably so. But I’ve never really thought about it or analyzed it. And I just keep doing what I have to do and don’t really adapt, even if I try to sometimes.
