Before We Die is about the police officer Hanna Svensson, who uses her own son Christian to infiltrate a criminal organization. This gives us the ability to tell the story that is not just dramatic, but also exciting at the same time. That’s why the story is based around different family constellations.

At its core is Hanna’s broken relationship with Christian, but also her grief at having lost her new love Sven early in the story. In contrast to this, the criminal organization that Christian infiltrates. It turns out to be a Croatian family, the Mimicas, where everyone is very close. Everything that Hanna and Christian are missing in their private lives, the Mimicas have in abundance. So when these two worlds collide, everything is put at risk.

The private relationships of the main characters always shapes the tension of the story. The story-telling should keep a rapid pace. Every episode ends with a surprising cliffhanger. As often as possible, we skip the scenes that are only about the cops gaining information. Instead, we cut directly to the scene which shows the direction the story is moving in, because of that information. We write many short scenes, with a few longer scenes throughout every episode to maintain the rhythm. The pace is kept high by us telling the story of the police work and Christian’s infiltration of the criminal to Christian who tries to get it, and then back to the cops who reach a new stage in their investigation. This makes the viewer feel that the story never stands still.

But most important of all is still the characters. Even though it is a cop show, it’s also a character-driven story. We provide the specifics of every character, but also their underlying motives. Whether we focus on Hanna or the leader of the criminal family, Davor Mimica, the scenes are written from their dramatic starting point. Both know what they long to have in their lives, but only one of them can survive.

© SVT / ZDF Enterprises

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