Jakov - Filmin: Radovan Jakovic, "Jakov", is a Yugoslavian newcomer to Sweden in 1990. He is shy, introverted, a bit of a coward and does not attract attention. His relatives and compatriots have been living in Sweden for several years. Some make money by smuggling tobacco, others by robbing banks and petty theft. Jakov is not comfortable helping his countrymen. Gunn Törngren, on the other hand, is a policewoman assigned to superficial tasks and looked down upon by her colleagues. When she discovers the contraband tobacco business, she will seek to partner with Jakov to prosecute all the culprits. However, Jakov will hesitate between collaborating with justice or snitching on his fellow countrymen.
This six-part miniseries is a dramatic acting duel between two highly engaging characters: Jakov, the gray one, and the spunky Gunn. As the story progresses, they each have their conflicts, desires and interests, trust each other, fight, pursue their goals and strive to save those they love. The two carry the weight of the story in a balanced co-starring role, with individual subplots following each other and rarely coinciding on the same plane.
Jakov tells us about the sense of justice, ambition, betrayal and loyalty. It also, on a second level, speaks of nationalism. Yugoslavians from Serbia and Croatia coincide in Sweden when the Yugoslavian war breaks out, so that belonging to one or the other people shapes alliances and relationships in organized crime. At the same time, we witness the transformation of Sweden in the 1990s from a peaceful country to a new environment marked by violence and large-scale crime, which disconcerts the police force.
The pace of the story is slow and calm. Events are sometimes rushed, there are murders, but calm and sobriety prevails. In a way, the pace is a consequence of Jakov's personality: a low profile, quiet and unobtrusive, but slowly changing his environment and blowing it up. Perhaps the length of six chapters is excessive, but, even so, it maintains the suspense until the denouement, mainly because of the dramatic evolution of the characters, the real attraction of this miniseries about ambition and justice.
