21/11/2024 - A 2009 cash caper involving a helicopter and some noticeably polite baddies is turned into an exhilarating rollercoaster ride, created by Daniel Espinosa and Ronnie Sandahl

Depicting the notorious 2009 robbery at a G4S cash depot in the Stockholm suburb of Västberga, involving a stolen helicopter (later found) and 39 million stolen Swedish crowns (never found), The Helicopter Heist [+see also:
trailer
interview: Daniel Espinosa
series profile] proved a fitting grand finale to the 35th Stockholm International Film Festival. Having been quite some years in preparation – a Hollywood production involving Jake Gyllenhaal was announced in 2016 but later scrapped – the end result has become a top-tier Swedish mini-series, created by Daniel Espinosa (main director, ably abetted by Anna Zachrisson and Jonas Arnby) and Ronnie Sandahl (script), distributed by Netflix and world-premiering this week.

“Is this your first time getting robbed? I know it can be scary, but if we take it easy, you’ll be home by dinner, okay?” These noticeably polite lines are honestly spoken by one of the “baddies”, here on a “lesser” job in order to obtain expense funds for the big one, say a few million, by robbing two cash-machine service men. It’s a telling little moment of characterisation of the culprits at hand, thieves of artistic integrity and a code of honour, priding themselves on never causing physical injuries along the way. “They’re no gangsters; they don’t use drugs. They don’t even see themselves as criminals,” one of the detectives on the case reflects, not without a sense of awe.

Such traits may also make us even further inclined to merrily sit back and partake in this rollercoaster ride, where ringmasters Espinosa (Easy Money [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Sandahl (Tigers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ronnie Sandahl
film profile]) joyfully and skilfully emulate the fairgrounds of Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann and that heist grand-père of them all, Rififi. Cocky wise-guy characters, sprightly and rapid-fire voice-over, cool songs and, of course, spectacular heist scenes are all on the menu. The main pièce de résistance, of course, is the infamous event itself, which enjoyed considerable global publicity at the time. Since then, a novel – or rather a “non-fiction fiction book” based on conversations by the culprits themselves – has seen the light of day, naturally heavily relied on here.

Also under the glimmering headlights at centre stage is a plentiful and talented cast, led by Ardalan Esmaili, Dejan Milacic, Wim Elfwencrona and Mahmut Suvakci (the main protagonist; a faultless, melancholic performance) as the caper fellas; Johanna Hedberg and Vic Carmen Sonne as unaware girlfriends; Erik Svedberg-Zelman (the winner of this year’s Rising Star Award at Stockholm) as a helicopter pilot with a cocaine habit; and Iskra Kostic as a determinedly dogged policewoman, more or less steadily closing in on the culprits. Do we actually, at times, hope she won’t succeed? If so, it’s because it’s exactly that kind of movie. And even if we know the outcome, it’s still exhilaratingly exciting.

The Helicopter Heist was produced by Sweden’s B-Reel Productions with distribution by Netflix.