A billion dollars, zero transparency, and one Swedish diplomat smuggling secrets through apartheid's back door.
At the height of the cold war a struggle broke out between Governments from all over the world as to which position to take about the system of apartheid in South Africa. Leading the fight was Olof Palmes' Swedish Government, which covertly funneled over US$ 1 billion to the resistance movement. This money was given without the knowledge of either the Parliament or the Swedish populace. At the center of the net in South Africa was a Swedish diplomat called Birgitta Karlström Dorph. Meanwhile at the UN the Swedes with their Scandinavian counterparts attempted to win the argument for economic sanctions. This led to bitter arguments which saw Palme leading the fight against the Reagan and Thatcher administrations.
Direction
Four directors somehow make bureaucracy feel like spy craft.
Production
Declassified documents and grainy archival footage hit harder than reenactments.
Editing
55 minutes—no fat, just facts that explode your assumptions.
Director
Erik Pauser
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This film resurrects a narrative Swedes themselves barely know: their country as covert revolutionary bankroller, not neutral IKEA nation.
Birgitta Karlström Dorph, now in her 90s, filmed her testimony knowing she could still technically be prosecuted—absolute legend behavior.
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