Shuni is 12 Percent
Episode 1 of Snabba Cash begins with Leya psyching herself up and arriving in her office. Walking purposefully, she heads straight into a meeting and starts showing investors – including Marcus – around. Wit 1.5 million crowns already invested, Leya manages to convince him to keep putting money into her project. However, they also need to move fast to make sure the project doesn’t go under. After partying late into the night, Leya awakens to find her son in bed with her. She rings Marcus who confirms she doesn’t have the contract just yet. We then cut to a restaurant where Leya is working in the kitchen. Sorting through receipts, it’s pretty chaotic but she does her best to keep it together. This all comes tumbling down though when Marcus is late transferring the investment money. Leya chases it up but receives some stomach-churning news. Marcus is going on a business trip and hasn’t bothered to tell the other investors that he’s agreed to fund her. This causes a whole whirlwind of stress, especially when Viktoria, one of her loyal workers, is on course to present for someone called Tomas Storm. Meanwhile, a wedding singer called Salim heads straight into a shopping mall and shoots a man dead in cold blood. He tells the survivor to inform Dani that this is his territory and hurries away. Walking normally out the building, sirens wail in the distance. There’s some serious bad blood with these gang members, especially with leader Ravy. Marko brings the two gangs together and forces them to shake out their differences. Only, a limp handshake from Dani only causes Ravy to grow in anger. This stress continues to bubble up as Leya heads home. There, she finds a toy car outside for her son, Sami. Asking her neighbour to look after him, she heads downstairs and confronts Ravy. It’s clear she’s keeping him from seeing the boy, mainly due to his gang ties. That night, Salim and Ari head out to finish the job on their rivals. Only, it turns out the shop in question has bulletproof glass and they’re forced to rethink their strategy and flee. Ditching their weapons in the lake, they head back to base. Only, they’re confronted by their boss, Marko, who’s not happy with them defying his rule. That evening, Leya meets Salim while he’s working. One thing leads to another and the two kiss in Salim’s apartment. However, a message from Sami sends her away. When she returns home, babysitter Fatima is there waiting for Leya to show up. She’s not exactly happy with her tardiness, but eventually does leave. In the morning. Salim and Ari are attacked by armed thugs who work for Dani. Ari is shot dead while Salim hides in the backseat. He eventually manages to chase off his assailants but the damage has already been done. As the episode closes out, Leya heads back to the restaurant where Tomas happens to be sitting, eating food. He’s interested in investing despite her failed impassioned speech earlier in the day.
The Episode Review
Snabba Cash delivers a decent opening episode, with some neat handheld cameras and lots of close-up shots. This suffocating opener does a great job building tension and bringing us into this crime-fueled world. Both Leya and Salim have very different professions but Snabba Cash does a pretty good job bringing them both together in an organic way. On top of that, there’s lot of action, drama and tension. All the ingredients are here for an exciting season to come, and it’ll be interesting to see what direction this one takes next. The shaky camera work is pretty annoying at times though but the filming style actually suits this storyline quite well. There’s definitely echoes of Top Boy here but for now, Snabba Cash gets off to a pretty good start.
