Netflix has announced The Breakthrough, a new Swedish murder mystery series that will star Peter Eggers and Mattias Nordkvist.
The Breakthrough is a new Swedish mystery series about an unexpected hero, an unlikely collaboration, and the hunt for a killer.
The five-part drama is based on the 2021 book The Breakthrough: How the Genealogist Solved the Double Murder in Linköping (original title Genombrottet: Så löste släktforskaren dubbelmordet i Linköping), written by journalist Anna Bodin and genealogist Peter Sjölund.
When the double murder in Linköping, Sweden, back in 2004 was finally solved after sixteen years, it was a genealogist who made the breakthrough. For the first time in Europe, a murder could be — and actually was — solved through genealogical research.
Starring in The Breakthrough are Peter Eggers (Snabba Cash, Blinded) as the police officer and Mattias Nordkvist (The Restaurant, Dancing Queens) as the genealogist.
While the series tells a fictional story, it is inspired by the actual 2004 double homicide in the southern Swedish city of Linköping and the work done by genealogist Peter Sjölund to help the police solve the case — details of which are captured in Bodin and Sjölund’s nonfiction book. The drama also shows how an unsolved crime affects a society and what happens to people who are left without answers to both the “Who?” and the “Why?” of the crime.
The Breakthrough will be produced by FLX and directed by Lisa Siwe (Modus, The Bridge). The writer is Oskar Söderlund (Snabba Cash, Rebecka Martinsson).
Said scriptwriter Oskar Söderlund:
“When I read the book The Breakthrough, I was struck by the fact that there was such strong human destinies behind this massive murder investigation. Police officers who refuse to give up, relatives who wanted answers and last but not least the genealogist who finally came up with the solution. It is a terrible trauma that has affected the people and the city of Linköping and I want to respectfully tell about the attempts to move on from such trauma. In the midst of this tragedy, there are people who refuse to give up, who’re struggling to move on and whose whole life is marked by what happened.”
Director Lisa Siwe stated:
“Though this is a fictional drama series about a crime, it is above all a depiction of a human tragedy, where we place our focus on the victims and the investigation rather than the perpetrator. It’s a story about the compassion and care for one another that is needed to move on when terrible things happen. In our series, we follow the two main protagonists as they search for the answer that all the other characters are looking for – by working with two completely different methods. The genealogist moves backwards in time to find clues in church records and family trees, and the police officer moves forward in his search for the next trace of the perpetrator.”
And book authors Anna Bodin and Peter Sjölund commented:
“We’re excited that FLX and Netflix will tell this story, based on our extensive work. This is the first criminal case in Europe that has been solved with genetic genealogy, and it is a case that has touched both of us, the city of Linköping and Sweden deeply.”
The Breakthrough will launch globally on Netflix in 2023 (date tba). In the meantime, you can set a reminder for it at www.netflix.com/thebreakthrough.
(Note: The Breakthrough will not be available to viewers who subscribe to Netflix’s “Basic with Ads” plan due to licensing restrictions.)
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