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Caliphate (Kalifat)

TV Series · 2020 · 15 people

The Swedish thriller drama Caliphate (Swedish title Kalifat) was made for Sveriges Television. It premiered on SVT on 12 January 2020 and ended on 9 February 2020, becoming the most-viewed series ever on SVT Play. It was released worldwide as a Netflix Original on 18 March 2020 and removed from the service on 1 September 2025. The single season has eight episodes of about 46 minutes.

The story draws on the case of the Bethnal Green trio, three teenage girls from London who met jihadist recruiters at their school and left for Syria in February 2015. The series follows several strands at once. Fatima is a Swedish Security Service (Säpo) agent who receives a tip that an attack is being planned in Sweden. Pervin is a young Swedish woman lured to Syria who lives in Raqqa inside the Islamic State and plans to flee with her baby; she is played by Gizem Erdoğan, and Aliette Opheim is also in the cast. Sulle is an outspoken teenager at a school in Sweden who is drawn in by a recruiter.

Goran Kapetanović directed all eight episodes. Wilhelm Behrman and Niklas Rockström wrote the scripts. Filming took place in Stockholm and Jordan. The series explores Islamic extremism, terrorism, tensions within Islam and among Muslims, women's rights and human rights.

DirectorGoran Kapetanović
NetworkSveriges Television

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Cast

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Gizem Erdoğan Gizem Erdoğan Actor · 39 years old Amed Bozan Aliette Opheim Arvin Kananian Amanda Sohrabi Lance Ncube Albin Grenholm Nora Rios Yussra El Abdouni Simon Mezher Ala Riani Monica Albornoz Julia Marko-Nord Maria Alm Norell Ida Marianne Vassbotn Klasson

Through different eyes

Series Binger A series devotee tracking character arcs, cast chemistry and season pacing.

One season, eight episodes: the series tells its whole story in a tight frame and never tries to stretch. Its real load is braiding three strands together: Säpo agent Fatima, Pervin planning to flee Raqqa with her baby, and Sulle, drawn in by a recruiter at a school in Sweden. That structure hooks one episode to the next, but the three stories don't carry equal weight, and some strands can end up in the others' shadow. Note too that it left Netflix on 1 September 2025, so anyone wanting to watch may need to look elsewhere.

Action & Thriller Fan Puts pace, tension and set pieces first; little patience for slow drama.

The tension runs on two clocks: a tip-off about an attack being planned in Sweden, and a woman getting ready to escape Raqqa with her baby. The stakes on both lines are real and high. Drawing on a real case, the story gets its tension from credibility rather than over-the-top stunts, which lifts it above the usual terror thriller.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The starting point is real: the Bethnal Green case, three teenage girls who met jihadist recruiters at their London school and left for Syria in 2015. By moving the story to Sweden, the series shows that radicalisation can begin not on a distant battlefield but in a school corridor. Its strength is that it also takes on tensions within Islam and among Muslims, which gives it room to avoid a one-dimensional portrait of the other. Still, telling heavy subjects like terrorism and extremism through thriller conventions always risks simplifying complex social causes; it should be read as drama, not documentary.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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