Collider has revealed that Viaplay is bringing the thriller series Mafia to US screens, and episodes start rolling out on June 19. 

Mafia is told from a unique perspective: we see the evolution of organized crime through the eyes of a petty criminal who rises to become a notorious gangster. Additionally, we follow a police detective who had the keen eye to realize that there was something more profound in the underworld of cigarette smuggling, but unfortunately, she wasn’t taken seriously by her superiors. Mafia takes place in the 1990s, and the story covers nine years of rising crime in Sweden, including armed conflicts, intense shootouts, and gang wars.

The strong cast features Peshang Rad, Katia Winter, Helena af Sandeberg, Nemanja Stojanovic, Jens Hultén, Christian Hillborg Cedomir Djordjevic and Dragomir Mrsic. Mafia is helmed by two high-profile directors — Mani Maserrat and Tomas Jonsgården, and Axel Stjärne serves as the lead writer.

Chaos is unleashed when an eerie object appears in the Stockholm sky. Fares Fares and Evin Ahmad play the lead roles in TV4’s upcoming sci-fi series We Come in Peace.

The shooting is underway, with plans to air it on TV4 this fall. Evin Ahmad plays the researcher Zandra, who investigates the strange events, and Fares Fares is the head of the Civil Defense Agency.

We Come in Peace is created and written by Lars Lundström. Jens Jonsson is directing together with Mani Maserrat.

Swedish-Iranian director Mani Maserrat is with his extensive experience from the film & TV industry known for several successful Swedish TV series and films.

Maserrat made his feature film debut in 2007 with Ciao Bella – a film that springs from his own experience and challenges some of the hidden prejudices in Swedish society. The film was met with great praise and travelled around the globe at some of the major international film festivals; in 2008, the film competed at the Berlin International Film Festival and shortly afterwards Maserrat was nominated to the ‘New Voices/New Visions Grand Jury Prize’ at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2009.

Following his feature film debut, Maserrat went on to direct the lauded SVT series Våra vänners liv (2010) as well as the mini-series Arne Dahl Bad Blood (2012) which became an international success.

In 2013 Maserrat’s second feature film, Vi/Us, premiered to stunning reviews and became part of the main competition at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival of the same year.

Since then, Maserrat has directed the psychological thriller series Modus (2015) for TV4, which met with international acclaim, and his later works include directing the crime/thriller mini-series Box 21 (2020) for Viaplay as well as the second season of Young Wallander (2022) for Netflix.

Maserrat currently has several original projects in development and is the director of the upcoming thriller series Maffia/Mafia for Viaplay.