# Sanctuary (2019)

> A woman who agrees to swap places with her estranged twin at an Alpine sanatorium discovers her sister has vanished and the clinic is not what it seems.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/75852

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 8
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: mystery, thriller
- Network: C More First
- Cast: Josefin Asplund, Nathalie Rapti Gomez, Chiara Martegiani, Agnieszka Grochowska, Philip Arditti, Lorenzo Richelmy, Will Mellor, Felix Garcia Guyer
- TMDB rating: 6.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8661868/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: eerie, claustrophobic, paranoid, melancholic, tense

## Synopsis

Sanctuary (2019) is a Swedish-produced psychological thriller miniseries created for C More First, running eight episodes of roughly 45 minutes each. Josefin Asplund plays Helena, who is called Hel, an estranged woman drawn to an exclusive residential sanatorium in the Italian Alps to see her identical twin Siri. When Hel refuses Siri's plea to swap places with her for a few days, she wakes to find her sister gone and begins to suspect the clinic is nothing like the place of recovery it advertises. Her investigation pushes her against staff figures such as Dr. Kowalska (Agnieszka Grochowska) and Dr. Silva (Philip Arditti), while a fragile bond with Perky (Nathalie Rapti Gomez) becomes a source of both help and doubt. The engine of the story is Hel's struggle to uncover what happened to her sister while keeping her own identity from being absorbed into someone else's. Each episode tightens the grip of the mystery, with the picturesque mountain setting cutting against the mounting dread. Set in a present-day Alpine resort, the series moves at a measured pace through a contained, single-season arc. Its mood is eerie and claustrophobic, with paranoia building beneath polished surfaces. Fans of Shutter Island, Lore and The Killing will find resonance in its slow burn unease and identity-driven suspense.

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