• 08/03/2022
• By wizewebsite
• 699 Views

The God of Knutby was terrible. The HBO series tells the story of the Swedish sect's crimes<

Nordic noir crime is one of the most influential cultural trends of recent decades. They have a global influence, which manifested itself in American and European television culture, including Czech.

Henrik Georgsson, 56, shot one of the most successful "scandi noir" series Most years ago. With the novelty Pray, Listen, Kill Yourself, he is now returning to the documentary genre, which he devoted himself to, among other things, an investigative portrait of the famous writer Stieg Larsson in the film A Man Playing with Fire.

A terrifying secret from the village

This time Georgsson chose a wonderful case of a religious community from the Swedish village of Knutby. Or rather a series of cases. The local believers who join the Pentecostal movement are responsible for a lot.

In 2004, there were murders and attempted murders in two neighboring houses. Pastor Helge Fossmo was sentenced to 17 years for killing his wife Alexandra and attempted the murder of Daniel Linde. But he did not shoot alone. Sara Svensson held the gun. She had a strange relationship with the pastor and was later expelled from the community. But not because she "destroyed the pastor's marriage," quite the opposite.

Mentally weak, manipulated and fanalized by thousands of SMS messages, Sara confessed. She eventually escaped punishment, but had to spend years in the care of psychiatrists. Who wrote the anonymous SMS at the time remains one of the key questions.

During the investigation, the case of the pastor's first wife, Helene, was reopened in 1999, and he was reclassified as murder. But that's not all.

The citizens of Knutby found themselves in court again the year before last, already during the preparations for the series Pray, Listen, Kill. Three people, including the leader of the Åsa Waldau sect, considered the "bride of Christ", were tried for multiple assaults, sexual abuse and manipulation.

As can be seen, Henrik Georgsson chose a theme rich in events with a dark background. The Knutby case is well known in Sweden and is being reconstructed in the series by a pair of investigative journalists Anton Berg and Martin Johnson, who are also co-writers.

The director combines archive footage from the media, police reconstructions of events, audio recordings of interrogations, semi-staged sequences from the work of journalists and shots of the citizens of Knutby with feature scenes, shot mainly in aestheticized details. They show key gestures: a handshake, a hammer blow, a bloody hand on the knee.

Everything is framed by drone shots of the autumn or winter landscape around the village. In short, Georgsson strains all forces to make the result visually varied and noir-like.

Lend yourself to evil

But we will not see a gripping criminal drama. Rather, the director raises the question of who was the decisive driver of all events. And then he examines the evidence of the police investigation in detail. There are plenty of gaps in it, but at the same time, apart from doubts, it does not come up with any relevant version based on clues and evidence that the police would have to take into account.

The series is therefore strongest when it explores the operation of the sect. The charismatic Åse Waldau managed to convince herself and her surroundings that she was the coming bride of Christ. Pray, listen, kill in this regard also acts as a warning against manipulation and a dead end into which giving up our own freedoms and independent thinking leads us.

In the 1970s, rape was not "solved", shows a series about a killer from California

Waldau gathered around her Pentecostal believers who were willing to put God first. Thus, to prioritize the "higher sense" over the family, the religious community, over individual needs. However, Waldau identified the community and the higher sense with her chosen position and the struggle to achieve it.

No matter how the details unfolded, the citizens of Knutby lost the opportunity to be who they wanted. Many in the document say they have succumbed to absurd demands without realizing their madness.

Waldau accused the faithful of standing in the way of the highest goal and of harming her. Personally and through intermediaries, she punished, destroyed relationships, made victims, disturbed children and parents.

The series will not bring satisfaction to the viewer. It shows that although the filmmakers thought through various perspectives thoroughly and with as little interest as possible, they could not present a complex topic unambiguously. Give him your perspective or overlap. For example, by choosing the individual aspects of the case more conceptually. Or that they would omit some witnesses who show the consistency of journalists rather than bringing new knowledge.

Instead, the staff returns to key parts of the case on an ongoing basis, unnecessarily often. To be sure, the creators added a sentence in the headlines that the individual parts should be understood only in the context of information from other episodes.

Dark crime series still reigns. The outsider tests our understanding for the supernatural

For a full insight into the life of the Pentecostal sect and its manipulative leader, later expelled from the movement, a played format would probably be better. Such as offered by the American film Martha Marcy May Marlene, which functions as a study of sectarianism and a captivating thriller. In the case of the horror film Solstice or Message in a Bottle, the Nordic filmmakers Ari Aster and Hans Petter Moland also tried a thematically related material.

However, it cannot be ruled out that a thorough review of the "Knutby cases" will lead to a feature film script over time.