# The Congregation (2021)

> A naive young woman joins a seemingly warm free church congregation in a small Swedish town, only to find its idyll built on manipulation and control that ends in murder.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/113259

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 12
- Episode runtime: 43 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, crime
- Network: TV4 Hits, C More First
- Cast: Aliette Opheim, Alba August, Amy Deasismont, Einar Bredefeldt, Emilia Roosmann, Jessica Liedberg, Nils Wetterholm, Joakim Lang
- TMDB rating: 6.9/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15381144/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: dread-filled, intimate, bleak, tense, unsettling

## Synopsis

The Congregation (2021-2025) is a Swedish true-story crime drama series produced for TV4 Hits and C More First, created from a novel and dramatizing the real events behind a religious murder case. Alba August plays Anna, a young and naive nanny who moves to the small town of Knutby to join a free church congregation that initially seems like a warm and pious community. Aliette Opheim plays Eva, a figure within the group whose influence shapes the social life around Anna, while Amy Deasismont as Lilian, Einar Bredefeldt as Sindre and Jessica Liedberg as Ann-Britt round out the principal circle of believers and their relationships. The engine of the series is Anna's gradual realization that the community she trusted runs on manipulation, power games and social exclusion, and that each episode tightens the grip of group pressure and fanaticism. Told across two seasons and twelve episodes of about forty-three minutes each, it is a serialized, slow-burning drama where tension builds through whispered conversations, shifting alliances and the quiet pull of belief. Set in a remote Swedish small town in the modern era, it carries a dread-filled, intimate and bleak tone, examining brainwashing and the fragility of belonging. Fans of Big Little Lies, The Staircase and Wild Wild Country will find resonance in its blend of small community unease and real crime.

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