The Lørenskog Disappearance (Forsvinningen på Lørenskog) is a Norwegian crime thriller Series which is based on a real-life case and released on Netflix on 14 September 2022. The limited series is created by Nikolaj Frobenius and Stephen Uhlander and directed by Gjyljeta Berisha and Erik Skjoldbjaerg. There are 5 episodes with a runtime of about 52 minutes.

The cast of the series includes Yngvild Støen Grotmol, Henrik Rafaelsen, Christian Rubeck, Victoria Ose, Kidane Gjølme Dalva, Terje Strømdahl, Hermann Sabado, Glenn André Kaada, Roar Kjølv Jenssen, Kjersti Dalseide and Helene Bjørneby.

Netflix’s description of the series reads:

When a billionaire’s wife vanishes, Norwegian police must deal with the frenzied press and deceitful informants to find the truth. Based on real events.

-The Lørenskog Disappearance Review Does Not Contain Any Spoilers-

Before the series starts, it tells the viewers that the views expressed represent the opinions of the individuals featured and some dialogues, places and names have been fictionalised for dramatic purposes. I think you have to keep the dramatic part in mind before concluding anything.

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The series starts off with a woman in her late 60s getting abducted by some men in her own home. It turns out to be a re-demonstration of what happened on 31st October 2018, by the police. Anne Elisabeth Hagen is the spouse of financier Tom Hagen, who is one of Norway’s richest people.

On 31 October 2018, he came home from work and found threatening letter on a chair in the hallway, which explains the red chair with an envelope on the show poster. The sender claimed that Anne Hagen had been abducted and that she would only be released if the family paid the kidnappers 9 million euros in ransom, transferred through Monero (a new cryptocurrency).

Also claimed to harm and eventually kill Anne, if the case was disclosed to the police or media. Due to this high risk of endangering Anne’s life, the case did not become known to the public until eight to ten weeks after the abduction.

The Disappearance of Anne-Elisabeth Hagen in 2018 shocked an entire nation. This fictional series centres around the investigators, journalists and lawyers who in the wake of the kidnapping are sucked into a vortex of theories, speculations and rumours. The show is told from the perspectives of the external people who got involved in this case, rather than the close acquaintances.

Anne or Tom Hagen and his family are not the main protagonists of the story, yes it is about their case but it doesn’t indulge much in their lives and perspectives. It mostly shows how the police officers engaged in the investigation while dealing with their own personal issues and the same for the journalists who were heavily invested in the case and how it affected their lives.

As the mystery remains stubbornly unsolved the characters will find out just how far they’re willing to go in their quest to find an answer. This series uncovers how susceptible we all are to constructing our own conclusions in the absence of definitive truth. The fictionalised series shows the development of the case from Anne Hagen’s disappearance on 31 October 2018 until 31 October 2020.

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When the case was made public, most Norwegians became amateur detectives. Everyone has a theory about what really happened when Anne Hagen disappeared from her home. Soon it became fodder for true crime enthusiasts who debate endlessly on online forums, where some believe Anne ran away, while others have already concluded Tom guilty of his wife’s murder.

However, the case is still under investigation and remains unsolved to this day. The purpose of the series is to show how we as a society react when a case like the Lørenskog disappearance remains unsolved. It doesn’t say what might have actually happened or whose guilty but focuses on several characters who have completely different approaches to the case.

Summing Up: The Lørenskog Disappearance

The fictionalised crime series, based on a true event starts off with much suspense and mystery but just like the case, it fizzles down to nowhere. Considering the case is still ongoing with no concrete suspect, it is difficult to come to a resolution which is highly expected in crime series like these.

Viewers want to know the whole truth and from a creator’s perspective, even if you try to stay neutral, the subconscious bias eventually comes out in the final result. Like many, the creators somewhat emphasise more on Tom Hagen being the culprit behind it all, while he hasn’t been proven guilty yet.

That’s when the question arises whether this series came out too soon before any major development on the case could be made. It tries to take a critical approach to both the media community and how the police work, but also how we think about guilt and innocence, based on our biases.

The series presents you with different perspectives and it’s up to the viewers to decide which side they want to be on. If it were pure fiction, I would have chosen a side but considering it a real situation, it doesn’t sit well to make conclusions based on a dramatic series.

The Lørenskog Disappearance is currently streaming on Netflix.

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