If you watch series like Homeland or Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, the fate of the world is always on the shoulders of a secret agent whose intuition and dedication go against the plans of the most arrogant terrorists in the world. The series Caliphate / Kalifat, released a few days ago on Netflix, brings the genre to Europe, washes it somewhat of the sins of the white savior perspective and focuses on telephone communication between a young mother in Syria and the Swedish policewoman to whom she betrays her terrorist husband. What follows is a clever thriller with a significant stake: preventing a destructive terrorist attack in Stockholm.

The advantage of living in a country that even refugees avoid makes this mystery for Romanians this radicalization and fundamentalization a subject that you only hear about in the news or read in the newspapers. Caliphate goes straight to the heart of the matter and shows the stages of this abrupt change, from a person who sees his own life to one ready to take the lives of others, all because of hallucinatory reasoning, like the 72 virgins who look forward to them. in heaven the “martyrs” with negligible intelligence.

At the center of the story are two women. One is Pervin (Gizem Erdogan), a young mother who, after adolescence in Sweden and radicalization with her husband Husam (Amed Bozan), arrives in Syria, where Husam becomes a combatant member of the Islamic State. The birth of her little girl makes Pervin understand once and for all that she must return to Europe and, following a contest of circumstances, the young woman comes into contact with Fatima (Aliette Opheim), a policewoman concerned with advancing her career in the anti-terror department. of the Stockholm Police.

Their telephone relationship is one of the pluses of the series, because it contrasts two people with different needs and goals. And it’s no surprise that the series launches in March, a month in which Netflix has packed a lot of awards with strong female characters in the foreground. Both Pervin and Fatima are determined to resist, each in their own way, in a world of men. And, if we can understand why Pervin has only the status of mother and housewife in her community, it is very surprising how Fatima sees her every initiative ridiculed by her superiors.

Another place where Caliphate strikes is the drama of the family of Suleiman (Simon Mehzer), a Muslim from Stockholm not at all concerned with religion. When his daughter, Sulle (Nora Rios), is drawn to the ambiguous promises of the terrorist Ibbe (Lancelot Ncube), we see both sides of a dramatic situation: on the one hand the seduction of extremism for a teenager in search of meaning, order, authority and esteem of himself, on the other hand, the misfortune of a parent to see his daughter walking on an irrational path with no way back. It is one of Caliphate’s strongest side intrigues.

Even if it does not avoid some terrible traps (a major upheaval will frustrate the spectators at some point), Caliphate is really one of the best solutions for spending time in isolation. Just to see it on your laptop or tablet, so as not to suffocate the tape …