After diving into the jet-black snow of the Nordic Noir dark Comedy In Order of Disappearance in September 2016,I took a look at director Hans Petter Moland's IMDb page,and found that Moland had made the 3rd title in the Department Q movies. Originally being unable to find the film on DVD (it is now out in a box set) I was thrilled to find the BBC recently showing all the movies in the series,which led to me again joining the department.
The plot:
Spending years working the cold cases with Assad in Department Q, detective Carl Mørck begins expressing about how worn down he is starting to feel. On a beach, a person finds a message in a bottle. As the bottle lands on Department Q, Mørck and Assad realise that the note is from a boy who was kidnapped six years ago by someone with religious connections. Attempting to identify the boy, Assad and Mørck uncover a series of kidnaps and murders have taken place,of children whose parents were involved in various short-lived religious cults,that leads to this being holy final mission for Mørck.
View on the film:
Ploughing the frost of In Order Of Disappearance,director Hans Petter Moland & cinematographer John Andreas Andersen give the title an icy Nordic Noir chill,with a car park chase and the ocean where the killer hides being given a rough quality expressing the darkness that hides in the isolated locations. Cutting into the backstory of the killer with a Slasher-style flashback ( "No Mommy!") Moland gives (what appears to be) the final Department Q movie an earthy gravitas,in stylish close-ups uncovering the burnt-out state of Mørck.
Returning to adapt Jussi Adler-Olsen's (who has written 7 books in the series) book,the screenplay by Nikolaj Arcel loses some of the tightly coiled focus of the second entry by leaving open wounds in the investigation,with the "professional" level Department Q is held in being at odds with the open goals they miss (no one uses a tracking device to try and find the psycho.) Making the memory of a strange noise a major clue,Arcel borrows from the Giallo genre for a slick Nordic Noir serial killer tale,where the unmasking of the killer is cleverly linked to Nordic Noir's major theme of the corrupt business elite,as Department Q closes its doors.
The plot:
Spending years working the cold cases with Assad in Department Q, detective Carl Mørck begins expressing about how worn down he is starting to feel. On a beach, a person finds a message in a bottle. As the bottle lands on Department Q, Mørck and Assad realise that the note is from a boy who was kidnapped six years ago by someone with religious connections. Attempting to identify the boy, Assad and Mørck uncover a series of kidnaps and murders have taken place,of children whose parents were involved in various short-lived religious cults,that leads to this being holy final mission for Mørck.
View on the film:
Ploughing the frost of In Order Of Disappearance,director Hans Petter Moland & cinematographer John Andreas Andersen give the title an icy Nordic Noir chill,with a car park chase and the ocean where the killer hides being given a rough quality expressing the darkness that hides in the isolated locations. Cutting into the backstory of the killer with a Slasher-style flashback ( "No Mommy!") Moland gives (what appears to be) the final Department Q movie an earthy gravitas,in stylish close-ups uncovering the burnt-out state of Mørck.
Returning to adapt Jussi Adler-Olsen's (who has written 7 books in the series) book,the screenplay by Nikolaj Arcel loses some of the tightly coiled focus of the second entry by leaving open wounds in the investigation,with the "professional" level Department Q is held in being at odds with the open goals they miss (no one uses a tracking device to try and find the psycho.) Making the memory of a strange noise a major clue,Arcel borrows from the Giallo genre for a slick Nordic Noir serial killer tale,where the unmasking of the killer is cleverly linked to Nordic Noir's major theme of the corrupt business elite,as Department Q closes its doors.