Our Current Obsession? This Swedish Cold Case Drama

Netflix loves a crime drama – but this one is a little different. Whisking us back to the early 2000s before returning to the 2020s, The Breakthrough tells the story of a small Swedish town rocked by a double homicide. But is The Breakthrough based on a true story? And can we expect a second season? Here’s what you need to know.

Mattias Nordkvist as Per & Peter Eggers as John in The Breakthrough. (Courtesy of Netflix © 2023)

Is The Breakthrough Based On A True Story?

Yes, Netflix’s new original crime drama The Breakthrough is based on one of the largest criminal investigations in Swedish history – second only to the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. On 19 October 2004, eight-year-old child Mohammed Ammouri and a woman in her late 50s, Anna-Lena Svensson, were stabbed to death in the small town of Linköping – in broad daylight (in The Breakthrough, the victims are renamed Adnan and Gunilla). There was only one witness, who didn’t get a good enough look at the assailant to identify them – she only knew he was a man. While they uncovered the murder weapon and a cap worn by the killer (containing a blonde hair – securing his DNA), police couldn’t narrow down a motive or a suspect, so the case eventually grew cold. Flash forward nearly two decades, and a genealogist enters the fray, bringing new evidence to light – and that’s the titular breakthrough in Netflix’s miniseries.

While The Breakthrough is based on the real Linköping murders, some of the series is fictionalised for dramatic effect. ‘Though this is a fictional drama series about a crime, it is, above all, a depiction of a human tragedy – where we place our focus on the victims and the investigation rather than the perpetrator,’ director Lisa Siwe told Netflix. ‘It’s a story about the compassion and care for one another that is needed to move on when terrible things happen.’

Is The Breakthrough Based On A Book?

Yes, The Breakthrough is based on a 2021 book of the same name written by journalist Anna Bodin and the real genealogist involved with the case, Peter Sjölund. Oskar Söderlund read and was struck by their work – and adapted it into a screenplay for Netflix.

‘When I read the book The Breakthrough, I was struck by the fact that there was such strong human destinies behind this massive murder investigation,’ Söderlund says. ‘Police officers who refuse to give up, relatives who wanted answers and last but not least the genealogist who finally came up with the solution. In the midst of this tragedy, there are people who refuse to give up, who’re struggling to move on and whose whole life is marked by what happened.’

Mattias Nordkvist as Per in The Breakthrough. (Courtesy of Netflix © 2023)

Who Is The Killer?

Spoilers incoming… Adnan and Gunilla’s killer is revealed in the final episode to be David Nilsson, a loner who, when arrested and questioned, admits to the double murder, sharing that voices in his head told him to do it. In reality, the killer was Daniel Nyqvist, similarly caught after the genealogists’ ancestral DNA research left only him and his brother as suspects. However, The Breakthrough adds a dramatic twist.

Is The Real Journalist Related To The Killer?

In The Breakthrough, the killer is determined using DNA and ancestral research – and this is true to life. In the series, however, committed journalist Stina Eriksson is also involved. Discovering detective John asked genealogist Per to investigate Adnan and Gunilla’s case, Stina approaches Per for an explanation. And what is the best way to explain Per’s work? Per does the DNA test on Stina, mapping out her entire family tree – and finding a shock match with the killer in the process.

In The Breakthrough, the killer David Nilsson is Stina’s cousin. However, Stina isn’t a real person, and is perhaps loosely based on journalist Anna Bodin who wrote the book that inspired the series with the real genealogist Peter Sjölund. So no, real journalist Bodin is not related to the real killer Daniel Nyqvist – this is just a plot twist to up the drama.

Peter Eggers as John in The Breakthrough. (Courtesy of Netflix © 2023)

Where Was The Breakthrough Filmed?

The Breakthrough was filmed in Linköping, where the real murders took place in 2004. Linköping is a small city in southern Sweden, located around 100 miles southwest of the nation’s capital, Stockholm. With 167,000 inhabitants as of 2024, the city is known for its university and its sky-high cathedral.

The Breakthrough Cast

• Peter Eggers as John
• Mattias Nordkvist as Per
• Jessica Liedberg as Francy
• Jonatan Rodriguez as Miran
• Karin de Frumerie as Lollo
• Annika Hallin as Karin
• Julia Sporre as Stina
• Malin Güettler as Annika
• Anna Azcárate as Gunilla
• Marley Norstad as Adnan
• Pevin Hannah Namek Sali as Maya
• Helen Al-Janabi as Elena
• Bahador Foladi as Saad
• Julius Fleischanderl as Ante
• Per Burell as Kjell
• Emelie Falk as Anna
• Magnus Mark as Björn

Will There Be The Breakthrough Season 2?

No, The Breakthrough is a limited four-part series based on the real Linköping murders in Sweden. With that case now closed, so is the series. However, similar cold-case dramas on Netflix include:

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