
Feeling the heat
Based on true events, Swedish drama Smärtpunkten (Pressure Point) tells the story of a writer and producer who partner with some dangerous prisoners to create a new play – with tragic consequences. Series writer Pelle Rådström explains how he brought this story to the screen.
Based on a true story, Swedish miniseries Smärtpunkten (Pressure Point) dramatises efforts made by renowned playwright Lars Norén and producer Isa Stenberg to partner with the dangerous inmates of a maximum-security prison to create a new play.

However, amid a contentious debate on freedom of speech and government oversight lapses, the prisoners exploit their freedom, leading to bank robberies and the emergence of a neo-Nazi organisation. Tragically, their actions result in a double police murder, causing a national scandal and lasting trauma.
Directed by Sanna Lenken, the three-part series comes from writer Pelle Rådström (En mot en). It is produced by Art & Bob and Kärnfilm for Sweden’s SVT, where it debuted last April, and distributed by Reinvent Studios. The cast includes David Dencik as Lars and Maria Sid as Isa.
Rådström tells DQ why and how he sought to dramatise the real events for television, the relationship between Lars and Isa, and finding humour in a dramatic situation.
Introduce us to Smärtpunkten.
Smärtpunkten is based on actual events. It’s about the playwright Lars Norén and his producer Isa Stenberg, who decide to devise a play in a maximum-security prison with three inmates, two of whom are neo-Nazis. Isa and the Swedish prison service are both hoping this will change and rehabilitate the prisoners. But we, the audience, soon realise it won’t be as easy as that, as the two Nazi sympathisers are secretly building a revolutionary neo-Nazi movement while working on the play. They’re going to finance this movement through armed bank robberies, which they plan to carry out while on temporary release from prison.
What was your interest in dramatising the real events the series is based on?
First and foremost, it is such a compelling and strange story. It has all the ingredients you could ever wish for as a TV writer: a protagonist with an engaging driving force, a rich and varied cast of characters, thematic complexity, social relevance, hidden agendas, as well as a pending threat that creates great tension.

I also found it fascinating that the story made me feel so incredibly ambivalent. On the one hand, I fully sympathise with the producer, Isa, and the prison service, who harbour such faith in people. On the other hand, it’s precisely this faith – their belief that these prisoners can change through this theatre project – which causes them to take such naive and irresponsible decisions. I genuinely believe that this kind of ambivalence, where there is no obvious one way of thinking about it as a writer, is a very good starting point for creating a nuanced and interesting TV series.
And how did those real events and your research inform the series?
Elisabeth Åsbrink’s book (called Smärtpunkten) makes for an incredibly strong and well-researched foundation for the series. But of course, I’ve also conducted my own research to find out details around which to build the scenes.
I’m quite sceptical of so many writers taking all these liberties with true stories when turning them into film or a TV show. To me it’s downright unethical to sacrifice the reality of what happened to service your dramaturgical needs. With Smärtpunkten we’ve tried, as far as possible, to follow reality wherever it would lead us, rather than force that reality into a dramaturgic framework.
What comment does the show make on the artistic process – and the way this changes in a dramatic environment such as a prison?
This is a story that fills me with great ambivalence. The same goes for the questions the series raises around artistic processes. My ambition for the series has been to, rather than present unequivocal answers, raise a wide range of questions – including about the artistic process depicted in it.
But as a writer, you always have some kind of agenda. You always take a few unequivocal stances. And the most unequivocal one regarding artistic processes is probably that the wellbeing of people always trumps artistic results, however great these artistic results may possibly be.
What other themes did you want to explore, and how?
While writing this TV series, I always had a very clear thematic core in mind. Throughout my whole writing process, I had a Post-It note up on the wall next to my desk on which I’d written: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” And that’s what the series, at its heart, is really all about. How people with the best of intentions – intentions I absolutely sympathise with – contribute to a snowballing catastrophe.

What can you tell us about the central characters, Lars and Isa, and their journey through the story?
Lars and Isa are quite a typical duo in the cultural world: one (male) genius who is prepared to go very far to achieve artistic results and one (female) producer who handles all the practicalities, thus leaving the genius undisturbed to focus on his art. That’s the basic premise of their relationship, even though it obviously contains much more than that.
In their work with the prisoners, Isa always prioritises their rehabilitation. That’s what matters most to her. She assumes the same goes for Lars, but she’ll feel increasingly unclear about his real intentions as the series progresses. Could it be that Lars is actually prioritising artistic results over the prisoners’ wellbeing?
How did you want to present the prisoners, and how did you want viewers to respond to them?
I wanted to depict them as I’d seen them in everything I’ve read about the theatre project and in documentary footage I’d watched of the rehearsals. In all the interviews and footage that I’ve seen, they come across as individuals who are full of contradictions. One moment they’ll be reaching out, wanting human contact, fumbling for some kind of meaning to life and exhibiting a strong need to be seen. The next moment they’ll be dismissive, seemingly completely convinced of their hateful ideological stances, with an attitude that seems to say, “I couldn’t give a shit about anything or anyone.”
Given all these contradictions, you start to understand a bit more why Isa and part of the prison service would see their Nazism as a provocation of sorts, as them lashing out at a world that has far too often let them down. And that is also why, I believe, they were able to put so much trust in [the idea] that the work with the theatre project would lead to positive, lasting change in the lives of these prisoners.
Smärtpunkten also has touches of comedy. Why did you want to take this tone and how did you approach it in terms of finding the humour?
I don’t know if I’d call it a comedy. Those of us who have worked on it very clearly view it as a drama and audiences generally seem to receive it as such, too. But I do admit I tend to give myself licence to be funny in my writing, even when dealing with quite a heavy subject matter, but that’s mostly down to the fact it’s impossible to write naturalistically without occasionally managing to be funny. After all, everyday life is full of absurd or hilarious situations, and we spend a great deal of our time in the company of others making jokes and taking the piss.

What was your writing process on the show? Is this the way you write on all your projects?
When you’re writing something based on real events there is, of course, one crucial difference compared with writing something completely fictional. A true story needs to be fully uncovered before you can get started on any kind of artistic work. And once you’ve uncovered this reality, you ought to be guided by your discoveries, rather than giving free rein to your imagination. But aside from this one big difference, writing is always writing. And to be more precise, scriptwriting is always rewriting – regardless of whether the script is based on real events or something you’ve made up.
What challenges did you face making the series?
Working with something based on real events is a huge challenge in multiple ways. What you’ll find when uncovering a true story is that so much of it doesn’t make any sense and is often impossible to organise into a neat pattern of cause and effect. Not to mention real people are full of contradictions, which flies in the face of everything we’re taught about scriptwriting, where we’re meant to strive for clarity and stringency and create characters with a single clear motivation driving all their actions. This palpable contradiction presents the scriptwriter with a series of intricate problems and, as you try to solve them, it’s quite easy to lose your way.
Why might the series appeal to an international audience?
I’d imagine the questions raised by the series are as relevant and topical for the audiences in any western country as they are for a Swedish one – questions such as how the establishment should deal with extremist views, and what society can do to inspire anti-social individuals to change and find less destructive paths in life.
Other than that, a good story is always a good story, and that transcends borders, history, cultures. And Smärtpunkten is a very good story.
What are you working on next?
I’m working on several new projects, for both film and television. A feature film I wrote will be in cinemas this year. It’s called Kevlar Soul (Kevlarsjäl) and it’s directed by my girlfriend, Maria Eriksson-Hecht. I’m very proud of it. For anyone visiting the Göteborg Film Festival this week, it’s screening in the main Nordic Competition.
tagged in: Art & Bob, David Dencik, Kärnfilm, Pelle Rådström, Pressure Point, Sanna Lenken, Smärtpunkten, SVT