Stockholm

Stockholm reimagines a real life 1973 bank heist in the Swedish capital as a lean, darkly humorous case study in power, fear, and persuasion. On a quiet afternoon, Lars Nystrom and his crew seize a bank, while Bianca Lind and the other hostages find themselves negotiating not just with police but with the people who hold their fate in their hands. As days stretch into a chilling standoff, the dynamics inside the bank grow unexpectedly intimate, forcing everyone to weigh trust against survival. The captors' demands collide with the hostages stubborn resilience, and the lines between victim and aggressor blur under pressure. The story revisits a famous phenomenon that captivated readers and sparked ongoing discussion about human attachments under duress.

Directed by Robert Budreau, Stockholm pairs Ethan Hawke as Lars Nystrom with Noomi Rapace as Bianca Lind. The film draws on the real 1973 bank siege and the 1974 New Yorker article The Bank Drama by Daniel Lang, widely cited.

Stockholm engages with a familiar phrase without dwelling on clichés. It foregrounds how fear and power shape human bonds, prompting audiences to reconsider the myth of pure villainy or pure victimhood. The film imagines a crisis where sympathy travels across the lines of captor and captive.

Critics note the film’s sharp balance of crime thriller tension and dry humor, anchored by Hawke and Rapace. It probes moral ambiguity, the price of control, and the way crisis reshapes loyalties, leaving viewers to question who really holds power in a hostage drama.

Box office: The film opened in limited release and earned a modest worldwide gross, reflecting a tight, character driven approach rather than a big screen spectacle, and finding audiences in selective markets that appreciate grounded, intelligent crime storytelling globally today.