Whenever there’s an incident of a kid committing a heinous crime, people often try to point the finger at someone else. It’s not necessary that an adult will have to bear responsibility for a crime committed by their offspring. The kids in Anna Zackrisson’s Deliver Me are lost in the dark, even though they have good people around them. The story doesn’t shy away from being brave and showing the hard truths that exist in society, and a few wonderful performances only add a cherry on top.
Ardalan Esmaili as Farid
Easily the main guy in the show, Ardalan Esmaili plays the righteous cop, Farid. Last seen in “A Beautiful Life,” Esmaili shines in his second Netflix appearance. A cop dealing with young kids going off the rails and the backlash of an entire town, Farid stays firm in the moments of madness. Donning a Chicago Bulls jacket most of the time, he truly embodies the strength of a bull when he needs to. He is empathetic; he stands up for people who need help and goes to extreme lengths to make sure Bilal’s family stays safe after his death.
Farid also faces criticism from his own colleagues, and by the end of the show, he has no one standing beside him. He lived his life as an honest man, but the circumstances forced him to allow Tusse to give false testimony. Mehdi’s crimes and sins crossed all boundaries, and he’s responsible for both Bilal and Douglas’ deaths. Farid knew that if Mehdi was set free this time, law enforcement wouldn’t be able to pin him down anytime soon. He makes the hard choice and decides to go along with Tusse’s statement.
Olle Strand as Douglas ‘Dogge’ Arnfeldt
Olle Strand plays Douglas Arnfeldt, the troubled kid who shoots his best friend in a heated moment. Dogge loses control of his life after the cops take him in. Dogge has little remorse over what he’s done, as he himself doesn’t process the gravity of the sin he committed. Playing the “I’m a child” card, he’s confident that the cops can’t imprison him. His actions only come off as self-destructive, and being a privileged brat, he has little concern about the consequences his actions bring. When he’s sent to a juvenile detention center, he asks for Tramadol from the warden. Dogge only feels better when he’s under the influence of drugs. Mehdi’s men break him free from the detention center, and Dogge goes back to his old ways when he’s comforted by cocaine and weed. His life eventually ends with bad karma, as Sudden hits him on the head with a baseball bat.
You really get to know the emotional distress Dogge was going through before he killed Bilal. Dogge has been neglected by his father since he was a baby, and the daddy issues only grow worse when the father actually dies of cancer. Jill, Dogge’s mother, gets severely depressed after she loses her partner. Dogge has nobody in his family to save him like Bilal did. When he sees Bilal is planning to leave the country and Mehdi’s gang, he asks Bilal to take him too. Dogge didn’t want to do Mehdi’s dirty work, but he was left with no options. Dogge shoots Bilal several times, and it wasn’t Mehdi who asked him to; it was all Dogge. He took Bilal’s life rather than letting him go.
Yusra Warsama as Leila
Leila is a single mother taking care of three kids by overworking herself. Warsama portrays the character with absolute conviction, and you’re bound to feel pity for the woman. Somehow making enough to feed her kids, Bilal’s involvement with the gang sends her life to rock bottom. Despite giving away every last penny she has, she is still unable to save her elder son. After Bilal’s death, grief takes over her more than before, but she still shows character and refuses to give up. When Farid offers her family witness protection, she makes the right decision and persuades Tusse to testify. Leila is one of the lucky ones in this show, as she actually managed to leave the freakshow of a town behind to start a new life.
Solomon Nije as Mehdi
The man behind all of this mess, Mehdi, is a low-life thug who managed to put together a gang, recruiting a few losers. Mehdi’s all talk and no show, as his wrath only falls upon teenagers who can’t fight back against him. Primarily a drug dealer, Mehdi uses Bilal and Dogge to sell his dope. When Billy wants out of his gang, he beats him and Dogge up to teach them a lesson. His means of exploiting kids resulted in Billy and Dogge’s eventual demise.
Yasir Hassan as Bilal
Leila’s favorite son, Farid’s beacon of hope, Tusse’s superhero, and Dogge’s mate for life—that’s Bilal, played by the wonderful Yasir Hassan. Billy ends up dead when he tells Dogge that he will be leaving the country and that he doesn’t want to be associated with Mehdi anymore. Bilal lived his life pretty well for a kid stuck in a deep mess. When Mehdi gives him a couple of grenades to murder someone, he chooses not to and throws them in the lake. He always looked out for his little brother Tusse, and he even gave the gun to Dogge so that he could keep himself safe. Always looking out for others’s wellbeing, Bilal gets murdered in true Julius Caesar fashion, shot in the back by his own Brutus.
Supporting Cast and Characters
Ane Dahl Torp as Jill
An anxious woman who’s still stuck in the grief of her husband’s death, Jill suffers and only suffers. Dogge sees her pain when she has to burn her dead husband’s clothes, and that’s one of the worst traumas he goes through. When Dogge is spending his last moments in the hospital, Jill is scared that if he’s not under the protection of the state and social services, she’ll have to take care of him. This woman has gone through so much that she’s lost her motherly instincts. She runs off when the doctors start trying to wake Dogge up.
Mahmut Savakci as Sudden
A grocer whose store seems almost haunted, Sudden couldn’t do anything to punish the guy who assaulted his daughter. Even Farid, the good cop, isn’t a good one in Sudden’s books, as nobody came when he asked for help. Sudden kills Dogge when he returns the second time. He regrets his actions later, and his own self-realization makes him feel like a monster.
Kalled Mustonen as Svante Larson
Leading the investigation into Billy’s death, Svante doesn’t really make an impact on the story. Mostly shadowed by Farid, you keep waiting for a single moment where the character will actually prove a point. Unfortunately, he doesn’t, and the character ends up as a wasted opportunity.
Mohamed Abdirahman Koje as Tusse
This casting is special. Mohamed as Tusse has one of the best acting performances in the show. Showing such a range of emotions at this young age, Mohamed’s Tusse makes you question the innocence of children. Tusse bears witness to some of the most pivotal moments in the show, and his testimony eventually leads to Mehdi’s meltdown.
