The Perfect Patient

A film about something that happened in Sweden. A man is held in a secure psychiatric hospital. Over the years he confessed to one murder after another; he was convicted in eight separate cases and counted as Sweden's greatest serial killer. There are no bodies. There is no evidence. There are only the confessions. Hannes Råstam is a documentary journalist. He looks at the file and something does not hold: the confessions change through the interviews, details are added afterwards, and the man is on heavy medication. He goes to the hospital and asks to meet him. From there the film is an investigation. The journalist asks for the recordings, examines the therapists' method, talks to the prosecutor and meets a wall; because everyone has a signature on this file. What the narrative is interested in is not the crime but the institution: the court, the police and the therapists all believed the same story, and nobody wants to step back. The film shows this not as a conspiracy but as a chain. The second matter is the man himself: why he confessed and what he gained. The film uses the real names, and the events led to the cases being reopened in Sweden; the man was cleared of every charge. Jonas Karlsson, David Dencik and Alba August are in the cast. Mikael Håfström directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes true crime and films about journalism. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a fast detective story; the film is built on documents and conversation, with almost no crime scene.