Snow Angels, Sweden-Denmark perfect partners in Crime

Selected among six high-end international TV dramas for this year’s online Berlinale Series curated programme, Snow Angels (Snöänglar) is the latest example of a flawless full collaboration between Swedish and Danish creators, talents and financiers, that started off as a strong idea from a seasoned writer, eager to challenge herself and others along the way.

The show’s Danish creator and writer Mette Heeno had a track record mostly in the comedy-drama comedy genre, with TV series such as Splitting Up Together, Park Road, and films including All Inclusive, Triple Dare or the animated feature The Trouble with Terkel.

With the embryonic idea of writing a show about motherhood, in its most harrowing aspects, - including losing an infant - Heeno decided to push herself into unchartered territory by using crime as an engine, and setting the story mostly in Sweden, with Swedish and Danish protagonists. (see separate interview - CLICK HERE). “Building a story between Sweden and Denmark made it more interesting. The two countries and so close yet so different,” noted the writer.

The character-driven story is set in Stockholm during a cold and snowy winter. The plot centres on the disappearance of five-week old Lukas on Christmas eve. Three women - his mother Jenni, the Danish nurse Maria and the hardworking Swedish cop Alice are all involved or connected to the case.

Heeno and her long-time partner, producer Mie Andreasen at Denmark’s Happy Ending Film started to develop the idea together, until Swedish pubcaster SVT came on board. “At a certain point, it became natural for the story to move to Sweden,” said Andreasen who praised the fruitful collaboration with SVT. “It enabled us to progress, and Sweden is where the story and characters found their true voice,” she said.

“The pitch [from Mette and Mie] was great and we were keen to work with Mette, so we started developing the show,” added SVT’s Head of Drama Anna Croneman, a big fan of cross-Nordic talent exchanges.

Snow Angels’ next major boost was at Content London C21 Drama Summit in 2018, where the project won the Drama Series Best Pitch Award. “With the award, we had a good opportunity to shop the project around to sales agents and potential Swedish co producers,” continues Andreasen.

This is where Sweden’s top crime production powerhouse Yellow Bird came into the picture. “We fell in love with Yellow Bird, with whom we teamed up shortly after. Together with producer Georgie Mathew, we also teamed up with Swedish director Anna Zackrisson,” said Andreasen who stepped back in an executive production role to let Mathew steer the show as delegate producer.

“We immediately hit it off at C21,” commented Mathew. “We knew of Mette’s work and SVT was already on board. It was clear we had to be involved!" said the producer who read the pilot script in a day. “Mette’s writing is marvellous, she writes in a very direct ‘Danish’ way and creates characters like no one else, and what she wanted to say with the show was super clear,” he added.

One small hiccup was Heeno’s Danish-language script which had to be translated into Swedish, without losing the nuances. “A Swedish suburb isn’t quite the same as a Danish suburb…but our translator was able to interpret that feeling,” said Mathew.

For him, picking Zachrisson who had just worked on SVT/Yle’s White Wall, and putting her in charge of the full season was the right choice. “Anna loved the script. She hadn’t done crime before, but the premise was super strong, and the characters’ secrets is really what drives the story,” Mathew said.

Casting of the main actors including Josefine Asplund as Jenni, Eva Melander as Alice, was mostly down to Zachrisson, although Heeno and Andreasen were “always supportive and available for any feedback”. They also gave their input notably for the third major female role of the Danish nurse Maria, played by Maria Rossing.

The biggest challenges during shooting according to Mathew was Covid-19 which broke out while Snow Angels was in production, but filming in Sweden was never paused. “We had to follow the anti-Covid shooting guidelines, while maintaining a calm crew and the high creative ambitions for everyone. Mette was frustrated as she couldn’t travel from Denmark to be on set. But in a way, we were also able to isolate ourselves, mentally and physically,” acknowledged the producer.

Another major challenge was the lack of snow. “2020 was the mildest winter ever in Sweden, which forced us to blow up our SFX budget. We also had to be super smart when choosing the locations,” noted Mathew.

On the financial side, DR joined SVT, and the other Nordic public broadcasters Yle, NRK and RÚV as part of the Nordic 12 alliance.

REinvent International Sales came on board with a consistent MG and strong input for the show to reach an international audience.

Further financial support came from Nordisk Film & TV Fond and the EU Media programme.

The series will premiere March 28 on SVT and April.