Peter Birro

Peter Birro, Swedish script writer, poet and musician, born 1966 in Gothenburg. In the 1980's and early 1990's, Birro was an obscure poet who performed with the almost equally obscure Swedish band The Christer Petterssons (named after the suspected assassin of Swedish Prime minister Olof Palme, Christer Pettersson). Birro's breakthrough as a writer was his script for the TV-series Hammarkullen (1997) directed by Agneta Fagerström-Olsson, which follows some people living in a low-income suburb of Gothenburg. It was widely praised for its humor and realism, although some of the real inhabitants of Hammarkullen were not amused. Birro's first film script, Knockout (2000), also directed by Fagerström-Olsson and telling the story of a washed up Swedish boxer lost in the Russian city of Murmansk, was a critical and box-office failure. His next film script, Bäst i Sverige! (English title We can be heroes!, 2002), directed by Ulf Malmros and telling the story of a young football player, was more favorably received. Birro has since then continued to write plays and television scripts. He is a big fan of Swedish author August Strindberg and British musician Morrissey.