Exclusive: Caliphate’s Goran Kapetanović will be directing Alba August and Aliette Opheim in the upcoming Swedish crime series produced by B-Reel Films for C More/TV4.

The Congregation is adapted for TV by head-writer Fredrik Agetoft [Netflix’s Clark] from Jonas Bonnier’s novel Knutby-The Day of the Lord, itself based on the true murder case in Knutby (north of Stockholm), that shook Sweden in 2004. Bonnier and actress-turned writer Anna Platt (Partisan, The Inner Circle) are attached as episodic writers.

Religion, violence, sex, manipulation. The real events that unfolded at the time in the small tight-knit Pentecostal congregation of Knutby had all the ingredients for the darkest Nordic noir. Now nearly two decades later, the gruesome story of a young nanny, brainwashed by her lover - the small town’s minister - into killing his wife, will be dramatised for the first time for television.

Two years after having acquired rights to Bonnier’s book, Sweden’s top content creators B-Reel Films (Before We Die, Midsummer) will start filming an initial six episodes this summer.

Leading packaging and sales group Endeavor Content has boarded the premium Swedish TV drama as co-financier and global distributor.

The official synopsis states that The Congregation starts off in the summer of 1999. The young and soul-searching Anna arrives at Knutby, North of Stockholm, ready to start her new life in the small Pentecostal community, headed up by the pastors Eva Skoog and Sindre Forsman. The leadership within the congregation “knows” that the Second Coming of Christ will occur in their little town. But Eva knows even more: when Christ returns he will take her as his bride. She entrusts Anna with this information and they create a strong bond. However, the idyllic facade that surrounds Knutby begins to disintegrate, revealing a web of intrigue, in which dangerous religious faith combined with a sex cult, ends up in tragedy, as Anna, brainwashed by Sindre, is driven into killing in the name of the lord.

According to producer and B-Reel founding partner Johannes Åhlund, Alba August (The Rain, Becoming Astrid) plays Anna, Aliette Opheim (Caliphate, Fortitude) is Eva, and Einar Bredefeldt (Beartown, White Wall) is cast as the pastor Sindre. Göran Kapetanović (Caliphate, Those Who Kill) will helm all six episodes.

“I want to tell a story of vulnerability, power structures and radicalisation, and how the inherent human need for love and belonging can be used against an individual,” said Kapetanović. “My ambition is to create a window to the reality and misery that was prevalent in the Knutby community during that time, to make the unfathomable more understandable, and hopefully convey something of relevance to the time we live in today.”

Josefine Tengblad, Head of Drama at TV4/C More added: “We are incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to deliver such a shocking yet important story, with this level of creatives and actors attached. Goran is one of the most inspiring and talented storytellers out there and I am convinced he’ll do this material justice.”

The Knutby case was also the subject of the HBO Europe true crime documentary series Pray, Obey, Love which premiered last month. The series produced by Warner Brothers ITVP was created by investigative journalists Anton Berg, Martin Johnson and director Henrik Georgsson (The Bridge, Marcella).