'The Bridge' creator and star reunite for cold-case drama 'Fallen'

The new Swedish crime drama sees Sofia Helin as a police officer who becomes the head of a cold case team in the wake of a family tragedy.

A woman in a heavy blue jacket stands in front of a grey-toned window, talking on a mobile phone.

Sofia Helin as Iris in 'Fallen' Credit: Filmlance / Carolina Romare

Swedish series Fallen has reunited two The Bridge alum for a psychological noir that proves beyond a doubt that their chemistry extends beyond the popular, multi-season series that spawned several international imitations. As befits a Nordic drama, there’s red herrings aplenty to keep the twists coming in the criminal case, but there’s much more to Fallen than a murder mystery.

Star Sofia Helin is Iris Broman, a longtime cop who witnesses her husband’s brutal murder after the killers fail to hit their intended target: her. In a state of shock, grief and guilt, she leaves Stockholm for her half-sister’s holiday home in Ystad. Kattis (Hedda Stiernstedt, whose other work includes Börje, also streaming

at SBS On Demand

) has made her main home in Paris and her two children are bilingual in Swedish and French. The sister’s similarities and differences result in a dance of familiarity and dissonance, a plotline that also has roots in Ahlgren’s personal experience.

A woman in a white knit sweater, holding a glass of red wine in one hand, hugs another woman in a blueish fleece top. The gesture appears comforting, although the second woman is gazing off into the distance.

Hedda Stiernstedt as Kattis and Sofia Helin as Iris. Credit: Filmlance / Carolina Romare

The seaside town is intended to provide a balm for the emotionally wrought Iris, but 20 years of finely tuned observation, crime solving, and justice has hardwired her for criminal investigations. And she is far from retired. She has been strategically reassigned to lead the cold case team in Malmo, ‘Kalla Fall’, distracting her from interfering in her husband’s murder case.

When the body of an unidentified boy is discovered, it is seemingly linked to a crime that occurred over a decade earlier, and Iris becomes immersed in discovering who the victim is, why he was killed, and how the case went unsolved for so long. Did someone in authority have a vested interest in hiding the killer’s identity?

Before you put two and two together (The Bridge writer Camilla Ahlgren + lead actress Sofia Helin + crime drama = The Bridge 2.0), this is a different beast. There are inescapable similarities, which only strengthen the series. Helin is phenomenal at carrying the weight of her emotional darkness in the smallest gestures: a wince, a glance, the curl of her lip. As Iris, she is a loner to a degree - it’s the nature of her work - but she is seeking closeness and solace in her sister, Kattis, and she can empathise fiercely with the family seeking answers about their dead son.

As the iconic Saga Norén in The Bridge, Helin portrayed an autistic, traumatised woman who focused on the most finicky elements of criminal cases as a form of control over a life that was overwhelming and fearsome. There’s a softness to Iris that feels new and compelling, showcasing Helin’s versatility and Ahlgren’s capacity to sculpt a story and script that is sensitive to women’s complicated relationships with their sisters, their work, and the jarring expectations of women in professional and personal spheres. Interestingly, Ahlgren

told Variety

that she had not written the script with Helin in mind for the role of Iris. Years after an unsuccessful pitch, she tried again with a different channel and when they suggested attaching an established actor to the show, Helin’s name inevitably arose. It is impossible to envision anyone else as Iris once you witness Helin’s wholehearted, affecting depiction of a woman in tumult.

Seen had-and-shoulders, a woman in a turtleneck jumer and leather jacket stands in front of a bush scene, with crime scene tape running between trees behind her. Several men can be seen behind her.

A discovery in the forest makes a cold case relevant again for Iris (Sofia Helin) and the cold case team. Credit: Filmlance / Carolina Romare

The series is, in part, filmed in Ahlgren and co-writer Martin Asphaug’s hometown village of Skåne, near Ystad in the south of Sweden, creating a contrast between the countryside and the historic, cobblestoned streets of coastal town Ystad with the urban landscape of Malmö. Interestingly, for fans of Nordic drama, Ystad was also the setting for author Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander series.

In this picturesque place, violent crime is almost unthinkable, and anything other than an idyllic, quiet existence is sure to cause fractures within the community. Iris, her job and her trauma show up without a welcome party, to say the least.

Kattis, her husband and her two children are the road untaken for Iris. She observes them with curiosity but never envy. Like Ahlgren herself, Iris is not a mother by conscious and deliberate decision. She readily embraces the curiosity and comfort of her sister’s family though, and while it is a relationship that is far from The Brady Bunch, there is plenty of relatable inter familial drama beyond the murder mysteries to maintain multiple layers of plot in Fallen.

A woman with blondish, tied back hair and glasses, in a green knitted sweater, sits at a desk looking intently at a photograph. Corkboards behind her hold various pinned images and documents.

Iris (Sofia Helin) at work. Credit: Filmlance / Carolina Romare

The physical differences in Saga and Iris are telling. While Saga donned tight, black leather pants and grimly delivered abrupt, often abrasive, truths without any sugar coating, Iris seeks solace in ordinariness. Her oversized, shapeless jumpers and functional, forgettable shoes appear to be the costumes of a woman seeking to fade into her surroundings. There is something regal and powerful about the fine boned, angular loveliness of Helin’s face that ensures she cannot be ignored, nor overcome. Indeed, she portrayed the real-life Crown Princess Martha of Norway in Atlantic Crossing before creatively helming and starring in sex comedy Lust.

Ahlberg, together with co-writers Asphaug and Alex Haridi, have given Helin a character no less fascinating than the Queen of Norway, or the beloved Saga Norén. Faced with a case that fractures the whisper-thin facade of family cohesion, a township’s desire to forget past crimes, and the need to confront the truth of a killer remaining hidden in plain sight, there are endless opportunities for Iris to drop the ball and give up. But this is an Ahlgren/Helin vehicle, so regardless of whodunnit, you’ll want to watch Iris tread the precarious professional and personal journey to the end of the final episode.

Six-part series Fallen is streaming now at SBS On Demand.