"Wallander"
Bröderna (2005)

Director:

Jørn Faurschou

Writers:

Henning Mankell (writer)
Ola Saltin (screenplay)

TV Series:

"Wallander" (2005)

Original Air Date:

7 September 2005 (Season 1, Episode 3)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Murder Investigation | Revenge | Murder | Military | Police

Cast

Krister Henriksson	...	Kurt Wallander
Johanna Sällström	...	Linda Wallander
Ola Rapace	...	Stefan Lindman
Angela Kovacs	...	Ann-Britt Höglund (as Angela Kovács)
Fredrik Gunnarsson	...	Svartman
Chatarina Larsson	...	Lisa Holgersson
Douglas Johansson	...	Martinsson
Mats Bergman	...	Nyberg
Stina Ekblad	...	Forensic Doctor
Marianne Mörck	...	Ebba
Allan Svensson	...	Johan Karlsson
Anders Aldgård	...	Olof Wrangel
Sofie Lindberg	...	Caroline Wrangel
Fredrik Dolk	...	Lars Berg
Bo G. Andersson	...	Andersson

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish

Color:

Color

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | Norway:15 (DVD rating)

Company:

ARD Degeto Film

Goofs:

Continuity: The amount of snow varies from during the movie, from 10 cm in the beginning to almost nothing to 20 cm at the end. The story is set in January/February, in these months there's normally 10-20 cm snow in south Sweden where the series is set.

Movie Connections:

Spin off from "Mördare utan ansikte" (1994)

Decent but typically Swedish cop flick

Since I work in a video store I get to watch a lot of film, both good and bad. I'm also pretty keen on Swedish cop-flicks but are often compelled by the absence of realism in this genre. The Swedish film industry is very interesting since there's many profound traditions, many of which I don't like at all. For instance, one of the traditions is that a majority of the speaking parts often (or pretty much in all cases) speak the so called 'rikssvenska', the typical Swedish dialect, spoken in and around our capital of Stockholm. This verbal tradition derives from the acting stages such as Kungliga Dramaten, the Royal Dramatic Theatre. Thus, the problem with the majority of Swedish films is that they are created and directed from this Dramaten tradition. Which, I mean, does work excellent on stage, but not on film.

The series Wallander is a great example of this conflict. The character Wallander is a cop in the south-est of Sweden, where most people speak a southern Swedish dialect. Almost none of the cast in this series does speak this dialect. They speak, of course, 'rikssvenska'. This makes much of the realism disappear. Unfortunately, I must say.

The cop, Kurt Wallander, is a construct of Swedish crime novel writer Henning Mankell and he's written about a dozen novels which I think are very good indeed. The capture crime and suspense in a good way in a little southern Swedish town and its surroundings.

This episode, "Bröderna" (Brothers) is a part of a newly written, free-standing series only based on the characters and the setting from the novels by Henning Mankell. Thirteen episodes are planned and this is the second. In short, this is about a couple of noble citizens victimized with no apparent connection. All this, when the army carries out a drill in the vicinity.

It's a pretty ordinary plot, which I am sure to have seen it's likes many times before. Carried out in a decent way. Characters and setting was also pretty standard.