{"id":23728,"date":"2025-10-28T09:53:54","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T13:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/ahmed-abdullahi-mona-masri-on-bringing-a-lifes-worth-to-the-screen\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T17:08:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T22:08:35","slug":"ahmed-abdullahi-mona-masri-on-bringing-a-lifes-worth-to-the-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/ahmed-abdullahi-mona-masri-on-bringing-a-lifes-worth-to-the-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahmed Abdullahi & Mona Masri on Bringing\u00a0A Life\u2019s Worth\u00a0to the Screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early 1990s, war ravaged Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the break-up of Yugoslavia. Throughout the conflict, Swedish battalions came in to help save civilian lives from ethnic cleansing and genocide. Swedish author Magnus Ernstr\u00f6m recounted his time as a UN soldier during the war in his memoir A Life\u2019s Worth\u00a0<\/em>(Ett halvt \u00e5r, ett helt liv<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Viaplay has brought the true story to the screen as a six-part drama, directed by Ahmed Abdullahi (Top Dog<\/em>) and written by Mona Masri (Snabba Cash<\/em>,\u00a0Copenhagen Cowboy<\/em>). With Edvin Ryding (Young Royals<\/em>) and Johan Rheborg (The Glass Dome<\/em>) among its cast, the screen adaptation follows four Swedish rookie soldiers into the heart of the battle on a mission to secure the delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians while staying neutral.<\/p>\n

Though the focal point of the series is the conflict, it\u2019s \u201cabout more than just depicting war,\u201d Masri tells\u00a0TV Drama<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s about the Swedish experience and the moral dilemmas of young soldiers sent to maintain peace in a conflict that rapidly spiraled beyond their control. They were trained as peacekeepers but suddenly found themselves in the midst of brutality, where ideals and reality clashed. Our goal was to explore what it truly means to be a soldier in such a situation. How do you uphold peace when the world around you is falling apart?\u201d<\/p>\n

She continues, \u201cInstead of focusing on the conflict itself, we focus on those navigating it, the impossible choices they faced and the emotional and ethical struggles they endured.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the show doesn\u2019t just portray the dark side of their experiences. \u201cEven though it\u2019s a story about a war, there\u2019s warmth in it,\u201d Abdullahi says. \u201cThere\u2019s love in it. There\u2019s humor in it. Because all of those things are side by side with whatever horrible things are happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a Swedish saying, he adds, that underscores this concept: \u201cThe beauty and the sadness co-exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

To ensure the authenticity of the series\u2019 portrayal of the soldiers\u2019 experiences, Abdullahi and Masri did plenty of research, beyond reading Ernstr\u00f6m\u2019s book and viewing his personal photos. \u201cMy background is in journalism, so I spent a lot of time researching,\u201d Masri says. \u201cI wanted to understand the area, the culture, the background to the conflict and the Swedish decision to participate in this humanitarian effort. I read fiction and nonfiction, including court documents in the trials for crimes against humanity that followed, and watched documentaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdullahi, who comes from a war-torn country and did Swedish military service, was able to lend his own personal insights to \u201celevate the story to greater heights,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Though the Bosnian War took place over 30 years ago, the series and its themes are still relevant to today\u2019s audiences. \u201cSome of the conflicts in Europe today were also some of the conflicts in the Balkans in the \u201990s, like the question of who is European or where we draw the lines between \u2018us\u2019 and \u2018them,\u2019\u201d Masri says.<\/p>\n

The development of the series was timely\u2014it began around the same time that the recent Russia-Ukraine conflict started, \u201cand people were talking about that as the first war in Europe since the Second World War,\u201d Abdullahi says. The Bosnian War was \u201calmost like a forgotten conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Life\u2019s Worth<\/em>\u00a0allows for remembrance of that war and the people involved, and also serves as \u201can opportunity to learn for future generations,\u201d he says. \u201cEven though we say \u2018no\u2019 to ethnic cleansing or to genocide, it still continues happening around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, though, Masri says, \u201cI think audiences are keen on watching good shows that take them on an emotional ride. I hope that\u00a0A Life\u2019s Worth<\/em>, which is a war drama but also an intimate, character-driven story, will do just that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The series will debut in the U.S. on Viaplay on October 30, with weekly episodes through November 27. Viaplay Content Distribution is representing the series worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Life\u2019s Worth\u2019s Ahmed Abdullahi, director, and Mona Masri, writer, on bringing Magnus Ernstr\u00f6m\u2019s memoir to life on screen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":23729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,70],"tags":[8745,11576,11577,820],"class_list":["post-23728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-features","category-top-stories","tag-a-lifes-worth","tag-ahmed-abdullahi","tag-mona-masri","tag-viaplay","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nAhmed Abdullahi & Mona Masri on Bringing\u00a0A Life\u2019s Worth\u00a0to the Screen - TVDRAMA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/ahmed-abdullahi-mona-masri-on-bringing-a-lifes-worth-to-the-screen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ahmed Abdullahi & Mona Masri on Bringing\u00a0A Life\u2019s Worth\u00a0to the Screen - TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Life\u2019s Worth\u2019s Ahmed Abdullahi, director, and Mona Masri, writer, on bringing Magnus Ernstr\u00f6m\u2019s memoir to life on screen.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/ahmed-abdullahi-mona-masri-on-bringing-a-lifes-worth-to-the-screen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-28T13:53:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-04T22:08:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2025\/10\/ViaplayContentDistribution-ALifesWorth-1025.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/ahmed-abdullahi-mona-masri-on-bringing-a-lifes-worth-to-the-screen\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/ahmed-abdullahi-mona-masri-on-bringing-a-lifes-worth-to-the-screen\/\",\"name\":\"Ahmed Abdullahi & Mona Masri on Bringing\u00a0A Life\u2019s Worth\u00a0to the Screen - TVDRAMA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-28T13:53:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-04T22:08:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/ahmed-abdullahi-mona-masri-on-bringing-a-lifes-worth-to-the-screen\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/ahmed-abdullahi-mona-masri-on-bringing-a-lifes-worth-to-the-screen\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/ahmed-abdullahi-mona-masri-on-bringing-a-lifes-worth-to-the-screen\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ahmed Abdullahi & Mona Masri on Bringing\u00a0A Life\u2019s Worth\u00a0to the Screen\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\",\"name\":\"TVDRAMA\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\",\"name\":\"Jamie Stalcup\",\"description\":\"Jamie Stalcup is the executive editor of World Screen. 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