The six-part character-driven drama is directed by Anna Zachrisson (The Restaurant, White Wall). The story is set in Stockholm during an icy snowy winter and centres around the disappearance of Lucas, a 5-week old infant. Three female characters, Jenni, Alice and Maria, are all involved in, or connected to the case of the missing child.

The mother Jenni (27), played by Josefin Asplund (Top Dog, Vikings), struggles with sleeping pills abuse and has no recollection of what really happened when Lucas went missing. She and her husband Salle (Ardalan Esmali of Grey Zone) fear she might have killed her son.

Alice (45), played by Eva Melander (Border) is a hardcore policewoman who becomes obsessed with finding Lucas.

The Danish child nurse Maria (40), played by Maria Rossing (Splitting Up Together, The Protectors), is connected to the case. She has dedicated her entire life to saving children from unloving parents.

The series was produced by Georgie Mathew of Sweden’s Yellow Bird, with Denmark’s Happy Ending Film for SVT and DR, with support among others from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

REinvent International Sales handles world sales.

The premiere on SVT is set for March 28.

You have worked on the lighter and brighter side on several comedies, feelgood movies, relationship comedy dramas. Would you say that this is your darkest scripted material in terms of tone?
Mette Heeno: Yes, it is very dark compared to what I’ve done before. It was the first time I changed genre. It was very challenging but I really wanted to try something new. It was like learning a new language with this new genre.

What was the starting point for the series?
MH: Besides challenging myself, I wanted to explore the feeling of motherhood, even the horror of motherhood, the complexity of having children. It is scary and it can fill you with hope, joy but also despair, when you feel you’re not good enough. I have two kids and have experienced this. You can judge and compare yourself to other mothers. Society can judge you. The system puts pressure on you.

I wanted to explore that feeling and thought: what would be the worst that could happen to a mother? To lose a child! Or even worse, if you start to suspect that you’re the culprit to your child’s disappearance. So the starting point was: a mother losing her baby. I wrote it in the crime tradition, using the child’s disappearance as engine and connecting all characters around it.

Were you inspired by The Bridge with the story organically set between Denmark and Sweden, which allowed the entire production to tap talents and financiers from the two countries?
MH: I felt that beyond changing genre, building a story between Sweden and Denmark would make it more interesting. The two countries are so close, yet so different. Sweden is bigger so I felt that if you have a missing child, it would be harder to find that child, whereas it’s hard to get lost in Denmark! I also think Sweden feels a bit scary, with some people that can be extremist, in a different way than in Denmark. So it made total sense to set it in Sweden.

I also wanted one of the main characters-the Danish nurse Maria, to be a fish out of water, as she has to move to Stockholm to start life all over. She brings her own baggage with her, her own references that are different in Sweden. The misunderstandings create conflicts. The language barrier between the characters also creates tension.

How much research did you do around maternal filicide?
MH: I met a leading doctor at a hospital’s neonatal department. I was there a couple of days, watching him work. He told me lots of stories about how you sometimes spot a bad mother. That was actually scary. There are a lot of grey zones in this area.

The engine of the story is the missing child, but can you describe how you’ve built the show, using the back story to push forward the plot?
MH: It was quite difficult actually but you have to nuance the characters, start thinking: how was Jenni before she became pregnant? I’ve built up the suspense in episode 1, then went back in time for a couple of episodes before coming back to a normal linear structure. Going back helps you get closer to the characters, but the suspense is always there as you know what has happened. You start shifting your perspective as you peel off the layers on the characters and your own morality gets challenged. It's so easy to judge people. The whole show is actually about judging people.

Jenni and Salle’s young daughter plays an important role. Can you expand on her character, why for instance you chose to make her deaf?
MH: I wanted her to be the little witness of it all. You see the adult’s world through her eyes. It affects her immensely. She is loved by her parents, but very much left alone. I made her deaf because I liked the idea that she could check in and out of the reality. It can be scary. If she has witnessed something or didn’t hear, it becomes part of the plot. It’s very much her story as well, of how it could end badly or in a good way.

Did you have other series in mind?
MH: I thought a lot of the HBO mini-series The Night Of. You’re never quite sure who is guilty, who is innocent, but you build empathy around the main character, even if he might be evil. It plays with people’s sense of judgement.

Were you involved in the casting? Was the script ready before the shooting?
MH: I did do some rewrites during shooting, but that was Covid-related as some scenes involved infants, and it was hard to work with infants during Covid. We had shooting drafts but changed some of them.

Regarding the casting, I wasn’t much involved as I’m not familiar with many Swedish actors. I gave my opinion but Anna [Zachrisson] and Georgie [Mathew] took the main decisions for the main female characters.

We did early readings with the actors before shooting so they could work on their characters. I loved having Maria Rossing on board. She is a friend. Her character Maria, the nurse, is very complex. We could discuss it together.

What do you hope audiences will take away from the show?
MH: I hope the story is relatable in the sense that if you have children, you will recognise some of these emotions. You shift your perspective during the show. There are no villains. It’s entertaining, but also a portrait of complex characters that you feel for as human beings. If you have fucked up relations or bad circumstances, some people can be pushed into doing extreme stuff, but we have to forgive them.

What’s next?
MH: I’m working on another major show, but I’m not supposed to discuss it.

Read our full story about SNOW ANGELS production: CLICK HERE.