The poignant (and award-winning) series about the redemption of a misogynist

BarcelonaTom is an internet troll who spends his nights spreading hate online and attacking feminists. When the harassment against a feminist comedian leads to her identity being revealed, Tom finds only one way out: disappear from the world by dressing as a woman. This is the provocative start of the Norwegian series A Better Man, which premieres this Tuesday on Filmin (with Catalan subtitles) and arrives with the endorsement of several awards. It won the award for best series and best performance at Canneseries and also took home the highest recognition at the Serielizados Fest.

The creator of the series, Thomas Seeberg Torjussen, began to conceive the fiction almost a decade ago, when he realized the level of misogyny online. "At some point in 2015 or 2016, punk changed from the left to the right, and suddenly, what was really provocative in present-day Scandinavia was saying that feminism is a mistake and that women should be in the kitchen. It's a way of rebelling against the system. I don't think we should read it as ideas that all the people posting on social media actually believe in. We're very concerned about young people now, but I think they're just saying what they think is the worst thing they can say at the moment," he tells ARA, the screenwriter and co-director of A Better Man.

Torjussen explains that even though the series deals with very serious themes, he wanted to add a touch of irony, which is why he had the misogynistic protagonist have to adopt a female identity to escape his critics and the press. "There are two major ironic elements in the series. On the one hand, that a man who hates women ends up being a not-so-attractive woman. On the other hand, that a man who has threatened to rape a woman ends up being a victim of rape. When I thought about these two plotlines, they seemed a bit stupid, but I found it interesting to write them and see if they could work seriously," he details.

At the beginning of the series, the protagonist has a gray and sad life; during the day he works in his mother's clothing store, and his only satisfaction is to unleash his instincts on the internet, which is a real drug for him. "In his case, he needs to get away from that, but I think we all suffer from it in a way, ourselves and our children. Our brains are revolutionized, they've never been as busy as they are now," says Torjussen. Ironically, the actor who plays Tom, Anders Baasmo, has no social media.

Empathy and hope

Despite the darkness of the series' theme, the fiction advocates for empathy and ultimately leads to a hopeful ending. A Better Man, in fact, constantly makes the viewer wonder if they would be capable of the exercise of empathy and understanding that the comedian threatened by Tom undertakes. "I think we have to try to be empathetic. What's the alternative? I can't think of any other way than empathy to reach all these men who feel irrelevant to women and the economy. We have an epidemic of loneliness, and technocapitalism wants to keep all these people in that state, angry and agitated. They feed the little monsters. We also need to make them realize that the online world is not the analog world, because I think right now we are confusing them," he argues.

Regarding the hopeful tone of the series, Torjussen admits that it was a cause of discussion with friends and collaborators, who found it too bright. The debate will surely also take place in viewers' homes. "We are in such dark times that I thought, 'Screw it, this will be my way of being more mature and showing some courage.' It's very easy to say everything is a disaster and fall into a misanthropic attitude," says the creator, who believes that dystopias are more suitable for "young art students."

In fact, Torjussen says he is surprised by the viewers' reactions to "a story full of vomit, suicide, rape, and orgies." In this regard, the name of one viewer stands out during the interview with ARA. The Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann, an essential collaborator of Ingmar Bergman, called Torjussen to congratulate him on the series. "She had never called me before, and when she did, she said: 'Thank you for such a warm and beautiful story.' I thought, 'Really?' I think if you show hope in the end, you can do absolutely anything, and that amazes me. I'm now prouder of the ending than ever, because it turns out people want to have hope."