Made in Västernorrland

Staden brinner

Bo Johan Sörensen Sweden 2025 49 min Documentary

In Härnösand, a group of unaccompanied Eritrean boys faces the growing anti-immigrant sentiment of the 1980s. That’s when 17-year-old Sara Westin starts what would become Sweden’s largest anti-racist movement: “Fem i tolv.” But when Sara and her friend Sylvia are murdered by one of the refugees, the floodgates break, and the town is shaken by attacks and cross burnings. Now, 30 years later, filmmaker Bo Johan Sörensen returns to his hometown to understand how things went so wrong. The documentary weaves together powerful personal stories with unique archival material. It is a film about courage and hatred, about memories that never let go, and about the struggle to prevent history from repeating itself.