The Swedish Connection

2026 1h 42m SV

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 88

DramaHistoryWar

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Swedish Foreign Ministry bureaucrat Gösta Engzell, overlooked during WWII, rescued thousands while turning supposedly neutral Sweden into a moral force. His efforts challenged the status quo and left a lasting humanitarian legacy.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Henrik Dorsin
Gösta Engzell
Sissela Benn
Rut Vogl
Jonas Karlsson
Staffan Söderström
Johan Glans
Göran Von Otter
Olle Jansson
Christian Günther
Oscar Töringe
Nils Erik Eklund
Loa Falkman
Marcus Ehrenpreis
Marianne Mörck
Stina Johansson

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Thérèse Ahlbeck
Writers: Marcus Olsson, Thérèse Ahlbeck
Languages: German, English, Italian, Swedish
Countries: Sweden

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released this year — you're seeing it while it's still in the cultural conversation.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 4 languages: German, English, Italian, Swedish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Kaspar Kaae. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Michał Leszczyłowski shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Henrik Dorsin and Sissela Benn and Jonas Karlsson carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt28793125 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

Only 88 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Thérèse Ahlbeck directs. Kaspar Kaae scores. Michał Leszczyłowski cuts. Produced in Sweden. Dialogue in German, English, Italian, Swedish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released this year — you're seeing it while it's still in the cultural conversation.
2Dialogue crosses 4 languages: German, English, Italian, Swedish.
3Original score by Kaspar Kaae. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Michał Leszczyłowski shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Henrik Dorsin and Sissela Benn and Jonas Karlsson carry the top of the cast.
6IMDB entry: tt28793125 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
7Only 88 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
8Classified under 17 themes, including "world war ii", "sweden", "investigation", "based on true story".

The technical file

Original score: Kaspar Kaae
Editing: Michał Leszczyłowski
Production design: Michael Higgins
Costume design: Ingrid Sjögren
Makeup / hair: Linda Boije af Gennäs
Sound: Benny Persson
Runtime: 102 min · 1h 42m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: SV
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: The Swedish Connection (2026)

Also by

Thérèse Ahlbeck

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2026-08-29
★ 7/10
Not long after the start of WWII, the neutral Swedish relationship with the Third Reich was precarious and they were extremely conscious that risking their ire was fraught with danger. Meantime, though, across the border in newly occupied Norway the Jewish population were beginning to be ostracised and shipped off to the labour camps of the Fatherland. The Government are aware that some of these people may have legitimate Swedish citizenship, but given the prevailing winds blowing feel they cannot rock that boat too vigorously - so they pass the buck down their administrative food chain onto the head of the their legal affairs team in the Foreign Office. Gösta Engzell (Henrik Dorsin) is your archetypal civil servant whom his bosses hope will just go through the motions, but as information reaches him of more and more atrocities, he decides that there might be a way to issues visas to many at risk of persecution. Initially he limits the activities of his not all entirely convinced staff to specialist cases - like a pair of twin boys; but gradually he expands this operation until it begins to annoy the Nazi henchman Adolf Eichmann (Joshua Seelenbinder) and so becomes an issue for his boss Söderström (Jonas Karlsson) and the upper echelons of government. Can they dissuade him from pursuing his mission or are they going to have to relocate him - and his wife - to their embassy in Moscow? There is something jovially avuncular about Dorsin's depiction of the increasingly determined Engzell and that performance goes some way to illustrating that there were more ways than one to take on their enemy without an head-on confrontation. It's still a very dangerous line to take, though, and through characters like Söderström and even the Foreign Minister himself, we also swiftly realise that personal concerns had to be weighed against those of a nation ill-equipped to take on the might of their neighbours across the Baltic. This is a characterfully engaging wartime adventure, more cerebral in nature, with a little dark humour included to help diffuse what is an obvious depiction of menace and threat by the goose-steppers whose obsession with eliminating the Jews is writ large here, too.

Production companies