Kalifat

I've recently watched Kalifat/Caliphate, an extraordinary Swedish series. I can not express how good this series is, it kept me glued to the screen for its 8 episodes, and with the last ones I almost had anxiety to watch what happened next.

If you know nothing about radical Islam and how it brainwashes people and seeds an infinite hatred in our Western world, this series will wake you up to the enormous threat that we're facing. If you have some knowledge about this topic, this series will move you to the next level. If you know quite a lot about this topic (like me) you'll be amazed by how real this series is, how perfectly it shows the horrendous reality to which our societies are confronted, how carefully it shows our enemies, the ones that have travelled to Syria to rape women and kill infidels, the ones that here at home take advantage of our freedoms and welfare state to wage war against us, the ones that seemed to be normal people but indeed had inside that tribal hatred against us that is easily waken up by some smart liar, and finally, the idiotic "pure European" loser that in order to give sense to his pathetic life goes through an "express conversion" and turns into the most fanatical and hate fueled Islamist (as a decade ago he would have joined a neonazi gang...)

The story is captivating and the characters are excellent. The immigrant family of middle-eastern origin gives us such a good portrait of how people coming from a same culture can move forward or backwards. The father is a perfect example of integration/assimilation. He does not like joining another part of the family that have not integrated ("they continue to live as if they where there..." he says) and feels horrified when during a family gathering that part of the family expresses their joy for the Charlie Hebdo massacre... His eldest daughter is the perfect example of a piece of shit. Alredy before undergoing her Islamist tranformation she expresses her disdain for "the whites" (yes, those horrible Swedish "vikings" that have given her everything she has). His wife is also integrated, but she is more "Muslim friendly". When the daughter starts to show her first signs of radicalization (she decides to wear a Hijab and starts to talk about how oppressed Muslims are...) she's tolerant for her new dress-code, and avoids confronting her saying tha she knows nothing about politics (while the father fairly reacts very strongly against the hijab and her comments). Then, when the mother finds that her daughter has been watching jihadist videos she finally understand what is happening and is in shock. As for the younger sister, well, I'll just say that at the end of the film she becomes the icing of the cake. If we were lucky enough to have a second season of this masterpiece I think she should play a central role.

The "Swedish" couple that joined ISIS and live in Raqqa are also pretty interesting. They man is a weak, confused idiot with a low IQ, so the perfect prey to be drawn into hatred and jihad. His wife, Petri, is strong and smart and at the present time she does not look like a fanatical, so maybe (this is my guessing here) she was drawn into the ISIS madness slightly deluded, thinking about joining a perfect and pure Muslim society, but not thinking about behading people and supporting the rape and enslavement of infidel women.

As for the Swedish police woman, Fatima, the character is perfect. A Swedish woman of Bosniak descent (we learn that she's Bosniak because she wears a Sarajevo t-shirt and eats Balkan food when she is hidden in one family's friend flat), bearing a Muslim name but completely unrelated to that religion (she drinks beer, smokes some pot, enjoys sex not being married... ). She is stubborn, obsessive, does not necessary follow orders if they make no sense, and is willing to risk everything to fight the Islamist monster. Choosing these origins for the main character has been a beautiful choice from the director, that is a Swedish guy born in Sarajevo himself. Probably he is quite aware of how the Salafists are trying to take control of the once very moderate Bosnian Islam. I love how she does not seem to empathize at all with Petri. She's going to help Petri just in exchange for information, but she sees her as the only one to blame for her situation (as she says to her colleague "she's there because she decided to go there"), and during most of the story she's using and putting pressure on her without any sort of kindness. It's only at the end of the story when she seems to get some feelings for her, but this is indeed intermixed with the fact that after Petri has fullfilled her part of the agreement, now she has to do her own, whatever it costs.

I could spend hours talking about this gorgeous piece of cinematography, but you better enjoy it yourself.