How can a film deal with the unsolved murder of Olof Palme in a documentary way? An event, about which we mostly know what we don't know? The answer is: Hassel! The now retired detective Roland Hassel is still involved in the investigation of Sweden's biggest murder mystery. But it is not only Hassel's many wrinkles that bear witness to how far back in time the murder is. The despondency of the ageing detective's eyes also remind us that the murder of the prime minister in 1986 is still an open wound in the Swedish collective consciousness. A murder, which Hassel now makes one final attempt to solve with the help of his not always equally competent assistants. Each detail is turned upside down, each possibility reconsidered. By introducing a "real" but fictional (!) character known from TV in the reconstruction of a very real murder, Månsson's film is just as much a reflection about the methods and limitations of documentarism. And with its washed-out VHS look, 'Roland Hassel' emphasises just how far the recent past really is. A both serious and very funny take on an extended form of reflexive, historical documentarism by one of Swedish film's greatest young talents.

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