tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/nordic-noir-17239/articlesNordic Noir – The Conversation2023-06-29T20:01:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2084782023-06-29T20:01:47Z2023-06-29T20:01:47ZHow Deadloch flips the Nordic Noir crime genre on its arse and makes it funny<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534482/original/file-20230628-17-izgacn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C2986%2C1989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prime Video</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You know how it starts: a drone shot across an expanse of grey water under a leaden sky accompanied by eerie music and a sense of foreboding. Clearly someone is going to die, if they are not already dead, and a small community will be riven as its dark secrets are exposed to the pale light of a wintry Nordic day. </p>
<p>But we’re in Tasmania, and the dead body is not the violated, naked body of a young white girl, but a bloke whose tongue is missing, possibly eaten by the town’s resident seal, Kevin. </p>
<p>This is Deadloch, the fictional town that is the setting for a comedy crime drama that flips the Nordic Noir genre on its arse, so to speak.</p>
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<h2>Funny Broadchurch</h2>
<p>The creators of this loving, yet savage, parody of Nordic Noir are Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney. In 2015, they launched <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCGc8JKl5EvE8IjZ_qprNcQ">The Katering Show</a> on YouTube: a web series spoofing the homely genre of the cooking show that eventually found its way onto ABC iview. </p>
<p>They followed it with <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/get-krack-n">Get Krack!n</a>, an attack on the genre of the cheerful but inane television breakfast show. It concluded with a <a href="https://youtu.be/B_SnLymcaZ8">memorable episode</a> in which, left in charge of the couch, Indigenous actor Miranda Tapsell berated the Australian public for their treatment of First Nations people. While it might not have been comedy, it was magnificent in its ferocity. </p>
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<p>Deadloch (2023) continues the Kates’ take-no-prisoners assault on television’s favourite genres with a series they described as “funny Broadchurch” in their pitches to the powers that be. </p>
<p>Apparently, the <a href="https://concreteplayground.com/brisbane/arts-entertainment/the-kates-mclennan-mccartney-interview-deadloch">inspiration emerged</a> from the “explosion of Nordic Noir” they were watching while breastfeeding at in the early mornings of 2015.</p>
<p>As a warning: there’s so much “colourful vernacular” in this series that the creators had to write <a href="https://concreteplayground.com/brisbane/arts-entertainment/the-kates-mclennan-mccartney-interview-deadloch">an essay drawing on Shakespeare’s Bawdy</a> to defend their extensive use of the word “cunt” to the Amazon Prime executives. </p>
<p>Indeed, linguistically, the Kates do for “cunt” what director Martin Scorsese did for “fuck” when it comes to turning a profanity into a rhetorical gesture.</p>
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<span class="caption">Nina Oyama in Deadloch.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prime Video</span></span>
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<h2>What is Nordic Noir anyway?</h2>
<p>The impact of Nordic Noir on television production around the world has indeed been significant. British academics Richard McCulloch and William Proctor have described it as a “<a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Scandinavian-Invasion-Nordic-Noir-Beyond/dp/1788740491">Scandinavian invasion</a>”. </p>
<p>While there are those who suggest Nordic Noir may have already passed its use by date, McCulloch and Proctor argue that the ripple effects are still being felt. Crime dramas everywhere continue to riff on the aesthetics and themes of the Scandinavian series that have captured the attention of a global niche audience. </p>
<p>Australia, it might be recalled, was one of the first countries to screen Danish crime shows including Rejeseholdet/Unit One (2000–04) and Ørnen/The Eagle (2004–06), even before Forbrydlesen/The Killing (2007-12) appeared on the SBS2 digital channel in 2010. </p>
<p>While the audiences for these shows may have been small, they included, as academics Pia Majbritt Jensen and Marion McCutcheon say in <a href="https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1535682/FULLTEXT01.pdf">their analysis</a> of the Australian audience for Nordic Noir, the “influential and trend-setting” creatives who would go on to produce new Australian crime dramas in which the traces of Nordic Noir are clearly visible. </p>
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<h2>Australian Noir</h2>
<p>Australian crime dramas with clear Nordic Noir influences have become common. This would include the political thriller Secret City based on a series of books by journalists Steve Lewis and Chris Uhlmann. </p>
<p>Produced by Matchbox pictures for Foxtel Showcase in 2016, Secret City re-imagined Canberra as the sexy setting for a Nordic Noir drama that owed as much to the Danish series Borgen as it did to The Bridge in terms of its aesthetics and style. The politics, however, were resolutely Australian, featuring Australia’s pig-in-the-middle predicament in the US-China power game. </p>
<p>And then there was The Kettering Incident, also produced for Foxtel Showcase by a Tasmanian-based team. While shades of David Lynch’s genre-bending Twin Peaks loomed, Kettering bore more than a passing resemblance to the Swedish eco-thriller Jordskott. </p>
<p>This show encompassed a blonde female protagonist returning home, the mystery of a missing girl, small town politics, environmentalism and supernatural happenings in a mystical forest – not to mention the spectacular drone shots of a misty and mountainous hinterland overlaid in blue and black tones. </p>
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<h2>Flip the colour palette</h2>
<p>Not all story boards for Australian Noir are coloured Antarctic grey. The ABC Indigenous crime drama Mystery Road flipped the colour palette to orange and red in what Bunya Productions producer David Jowsey described as “tropical outback gothic noir”. </p>
<p>Mystery Road managed to retain the measured pace of Nordic Noir and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/sofia-helin-swaps-chilly-nordic-noir-for-outback-gothic-mystery-road-20200403-p54gu0.html">exquisite attention</a> to a monumental and threatened landscape, while focusing on Indigenous issues. </p>
<p>They even imported Sofia Helin, star of The Bridge, for series two as a Swedish archaeologist digging in the iron-red dirt of the Kimberley for Indigenous artefacts. </p>
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<h2>Potty-mouthed satire</h2>
<p>Which brings us back to Deadloch and the apotheosis of the Australian assimilation of Nordic Noir as a potty-mouthed satire that is also a feisty feminist take on the more usual gender politics of the crime drama. </p>
<p>Instead of a mismatched male and female cop from different cultural backgrounds, we have a couple of mismatched female detectives whose initially testy relationship gradually ameliorates as they join forces in the quest for the truth.</p>
<p>Rather than a married male detective having problems at home, we have a female detective whose lesbian wife needs constant affirmation. Replacing the sexually violated female victims naked on the autopsy table, we have dead men with missing tongues and a self-important fool of a male forensic examiner who misses all the important stuff. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/miss-fisher-and-her-fans-how-a-heroine-on-australias-small-screen-became-a-global-phenomenon-131673">Miss Fisher and her fans: how a heroine on Australia's small screen became a global phenomenon</a>
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<p>As in the best Nordic Noir, there appears to be a serial killer at work who is trying to send some kind of a message through the murders, but what is it? Is it personal or political – or both? </p>
<p>In the meantime, everyone in this female-centric community, from the mayorette to the members of the lesbian choir singing I Touch Myself at the Winter Feastival, is a suspect. It just couldn’t get any better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sue Turnbull has received funding from the Australian Research Council for two projects related to this article. LP 180100626 Valuing Web Series: Economic, Industrial, Cultural and Social Valuation, and DP 1600102510 Border Crossing: The Transnational Career of the TV Crime Drama.
</span></em></p>Deadloch is a potty-mouthed satire that is also a feisty feminist take on the more usual gender politics of the Nordic Noir crime drama.Sue Turnbull, Senior Professor of Communication and Media Studies, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1981712023-04-04T15:06:03Z2023-04-04T15:06:03ZRough Cut: Netflix’s first Welsh language series is a further boost for subtitled content<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517858/original/file-20230328-806-otoojz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C32%2C5457%2C3837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The drama series Rough Cut on Netflix follows a group of misfits as they try to pull off a diamond heist. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">S4C</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Netflix announced in January that it would be streaming its first ever drama series in the Welsh language, the news was met with widespread <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jan/29/a-real-moment-cymraegs-the-star-as-netflix-buys-welsh-language-drama">positivity</a> in the media. </p>
<p>The streaming giant <a href="https://www.s4c.cymru/en/press/post/54344/s4c-crime-drama-dal-y-mellt-sold-to-netflix/">bought the licence</a> for <em>Dal y Mellt</em>, which translates as “catch the lightning”, from the Welsh language public service broadcaster, S4C. Adapted from a novel by Iwan “Iwcs” Roberts, the gritty six-part crime thriller follows a group of misfits as they come together to pull off a diamond heist. </p>
<p>Having been available on S4C and the BBC iPlayer with its Welsh name, the series has now been given the title “Rough Cut” for Netflix and is being streamed for UK audiences with English subtitles as of April 10 2023.</p>
<p>Given <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-why-foreign-language-cinema-is-struggling-in-the-uk-59424">concern</a> in recent years over the decline of non-English language productions in UK cinemas, this is an important step. </p>
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<span class="caption">Originally broadcast on S4C and the BBC iPlayer, Dal y Mellt has been given the title ‘Rough Cut’ for Netflix.</span>
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<p>“<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/books/review/nordic-noir-guide.html">Nordic Noir</a>” has paved the way for subtitled drama in recent years. The dark, Scandinavian genre has <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Nordic-noir-in-the-UK%3A-the-allure-of-accessible-Stougaard-Nielsen/2353eaeafcb2ee9a9ee00e45f132bfd048eeeec4">surged in popularity</a> globally since the mid 1990s. And crime dramas such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0907702/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Wallander</a>, <a href="https://www.dr.dk/drtv/saeson/forbrydelsen_-i_351784">Forbrydelsen</a> (The Killing) and <a href="https://nimbusfilm.dk/film/broen-4/?lang=dk">Bron</a> (The Bridge) have set the tone for productions such as Rough Cut. The combination of a highly recognisable genre, coupled with a distinct sense of place, proved to be a winning formula to be exported across the world. </p>
<p>Other minoritised languages have used a similar brooding genre since 2010 too. The two Irish Gaelic series, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1749056/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1"><em>Corp & Anam</em></a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2792326/"><em>An Bronntanas</em></a>, were produced by TG4, the Irish public service television channel. While <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06fp6cc"><em>Bannan</em></a>, a production in Scottish Gaelic, was made by BBC Alba. </p>
<p>When the dark, Welsh detective drama <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03sgfbz">Hinterland</a> was filmed, it was shot back to back in Welsh and English. The English version (with brief passages of Welsh dialogue) was broadcast on the BBC, while the Welsh language version was shown on S4C. And that somewhat controversial trend continued with more recent dramas such as the BBC’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p066st1w/hidden">Hidden</a> (<em>Craith</em>), <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09s7357">Keeping Faith</a> (<em>Un Bore Mercher</em>) and Channel 4’s <a href="https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-light-in-the-hall">A Light in the Hall</a> (<em>Y Golau</em>). </p>
<p>But there is something unique about Rough Cut because there is no English version, just one production in the Welsh language. This suggests a growing confidence in Welsh language productions. It’s a far cry from the early 1990s when the first Welsh language film to be nominated for an Oscar, <a href="https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-hedd-wyn-1992-online"><em>Hedd Wyn</em></a> didn’t even receive a cinematic release in Wales or the UK. </p>
<p>Recently, the mainstream success of non-English language productions such as <em>An Cailín Ciúin</em> (The Quiet Girl), All Quiet on the Western Front and Squid Game, suggest a gentle sea-change in attitudes to subtitled content. The latter was <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/10/13/squid-game-is-now-netflixs-most-popular-show-ever-and-its-not-even-close/">Netflix’s biggest hit to date</a> in 2021. </p>
<p>Parasite, the Korean mystery drama, became the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for best picture in 2020. And when he accepted his Golden Globe for best foreign language film, Parasite’s director Bong Joon-ho <a href="https://variety.com/2020/film/awards/south-koreas-parasite-crashes-the-subtitles-barrier-1203488979/">said</a>, “once you overcome the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films”.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The official S4C trailer for Dal y Mellt.</span></figcaption>
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<p>All this can only be good news for any future Welsh language productions. S4C says it is <a href="https://www.s4c.cymru/en/press/post/54344/s4c-crime-drama-dal-y-mellt-sold-to-netflix/">keen to see</a> Welsh language dramas “stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of the world”.</p>
<p>After all, there has been a remarkable growth in global content within a brutally competitive world of streaming. And that has been coupled with a radical transformation in viewing habits, which has resulted in public service broadcasters having to further justify their existence. </p>
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<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63414736">S4C’s recent 40th birthday</a> has been an opportunity to reexamine its history and purpose. Initially on a trial period of three years, it was one of only four channels offering a limited service during peak hours. Forty years later, it is a multi platform broadcaster. It offers more than 115 hours of programming per week, with the digital revolution meaning the channel’s output now has global potential.</p>
<p>As for Rough Cut on Netflix, the statistics are pretty stark. Streamed as a box set on BBC iPlayer, it had a potential domestic reach of some 28.3 million households. Meanwhile, it is estimated that 231 million households have a Netflix subscription worldwide. Though Netflix’s ambitious claim, <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/12553/html/">voiced to the House of Commons Welsh affairs committee</a>, that it hoped it can play a role in helping to “promote and preserve the Welsh language”, is yet to be tested. </p>
<p>But for its audiences, Rough Cut, or <em>Dal y Mellt</em>, represents Welsh as a rich and vibrant community language, with its narrative both mapping and showcasing different parts of Wales.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198171/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Woodward does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Welsh language heist drama, Dal y Mellt, is being streamed on Netflix with the title, Rough Cut.Kate Woodward, Lecturer in Film Studies, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/858902017-11-02T16:01:35Z2017-11-02T16:01:35ZThe Snowman: Nordic Noir with a hint of Dirty Harry<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192863/original/file-20171101-19858-rzoap2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Universal PIctures</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tomas Alfredson’s recently released film adaptation of Jo Nesbø’s bestselling novel <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1758810/">The Snowman</a> closely captures, in its slow, quiet intensity, the bleak essence of Nordic Noir. </p>
<p>The tones of Nordic Noir originate in the region’s uncompromising climates and landscapes and build upon the cold cultural comforts of Kierkegaard, Bergman and Munch. Its international popularity as a literary and screen genre has led to various attempts to adapt its most successful narratives for English-language audiences, including Hollywood versions of The Killing and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and British reinventions of The Bridge (as The Tunnel) and Wallander.</p>
<p>But, despite some lukewarm <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/15/the-snowman-michael-fassbender-serial-killer-thriller-review">reviews</a>, Alfredson’s film appears rather more successful than those other English-language attempts at the genre in its faithfulness to the cold heart of its genre.</p>
<p>The ice-cool Michael Fassbender seems born for the role of Nesbø’s inscrutable and taciturn Harry Hole in Alfredson’s adaptation. His understated performance recalls the character’s origins in Clint Eastwood’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Harry_(character)">Harry Callahan</a> and in Humphrey Bogart’s deadpan hard men of 1940s film noir. Yet the film’s machismo perhaps sites it closer to Dirty Harry and the traditions of American noir than to the genre into which the Nordic variety has more recently evolved.</p>
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<p>Since Kurt Wallander’s daughter Linda took the lead in Henning Mankell’s 2005 novel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_the_Frost">Before the Frost</a>, and (that same year) <a href="http://millenniumtrilogy.wikia.com/wiki/Lisbeth_Salander">Lisbeth Salander</a> first revealed her dragon tattoo, the genre has become increasingly characterised by its strong female protagonists. A far cry from the lazy chauvinism of Harry Callahan or Sam Spade, this Scandinavian genre has, at its best, explored the conflicted heroism of the likes of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/5r67r6H79CwBNQKMt6dcGDL/detective-chief-inspector-sarah-lund">Sarah Lund</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/1Zgbghx1TtfskdkhzgcRJ4X/saga-noren-and-martin-rohde">Saga Norén</a>, <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/series/thoragudmundsdottir/">Thora Gudmundsdottir</a> and <a href="http://jordskott.wikia.com/wiki/Eva_Th%C3%B6rnblad">Eva Thörnblad</a>.</p>
<p>The growing (if only partial and belated) centricity of female characters to such popular narratives is not uniquely Scandinavian. As such screen stars as <a href="http://www.starwars.com/films/star-wars-episode-viii-the-last-jedi">Daisy Ridley</a>, <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80126024">Sonequa Martin-Green </a>and <a href="http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-10-13/doctor-who-jodie-whittaker/">Jodie Whittaker</a> take the reins of major popular genre franchises, might the brooding masculinity of Fassbender here come to seem somewhat retrograde? </p>
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<p>Alfredson’s film, while remarkably faithful to the tone of the novel, differs from Nesbø’s original in a number of aspects – not least the deaths of two main characters who survive the book (albeit hardly unscathed). These deaths take place for the sake of narrative impact and closure within the two-hour feature film. But this haste to resolution feels out of kilter with Alfredson’s commitment to a genre which, at its most effective, produced a 20-hour exploration of grief and pain in The Killing’s first season – and Nesbø’s own ongoing, multi-novel elaborations upon the consequences of acts of extreme violence. </p>
<p>The strategy that it is easier to kill off characters than to come to terms with issues of emotional complexity aligns the film itself rather too closely with the mentality of its own serial killer. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/specials/kundera-speed.html">Milan Kundera</a>, by contrast, once advocated the virtues of slowness in an increasingly impatient contemporary culture. It is this capacity for quiet contemplation which has set Netflix and Nordic Noir apart from the puerile content of YouTube and the premature climaxes of so much of Hollywood’s macho product.</p>
<p>Alfredson’s film opens with the brutalisation, breakdown and suicide of a victim of domestic violence played by the Swedish actor <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0375138/">Sofia Helin</a>. Helin is one of the matriarchs of small screen Nordic Noir (along with The Killing and Fortitude’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0344894/">Sofie Gråbøl</a>), best known for her portrayal of Saga Norén in The Bridge. One might therefore read this opening as a declaration of the film’s departure from Nordic Noir’s recent female-centred history. But it doesn’t so much move on from the genre’s focus on gender relations as it offers its own dark perspective on that subject.</p>
<h2>Ambiguous hero</h2>
<p>The film’s core message is that the blame for the sins of the fathers tends to be visited by their sons upon their mothers and mother figures. It explores how male violence against women perpetuates itself by blaming women for that cycle of violence – and its final explicit message is that it is (of course) not the women but the men who are to blame. Key to this message are the parallels which the film draws between its villains (its emotionally distant cigarette smoker of a serial killer and his abusive policeman father) and its protagonist, the neglectful father and chain-smoking detective Harry Hole.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193021/original/file-20171102-26478-6ywpyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193021/original/file-20171102-26478-6ywpyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193021/original/file-20171102-26478-6ywpyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193021/original/file-20171102-26478-6ywpyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193021/original/file-20171102-26478-6ywpyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193021/original/file-20171102-26478-6ywpyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193021/original/file-20171102-26478-6ywpyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Sidekick: Rebecca Ferguson as policewoman Katrine Bratt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Universal Pictures</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The laconic Harry Hole is no typical hero. He is, as his name suggests, something of a nothing, an emotional vacuum. (His name may also contain an implied expletive: there is something of the hole about Harry.) </p>
<p>Like Gary Oldman’s George Smiley in Alfredson’s 2011 adaptation of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/sep/15/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-film-review">Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy</a> – and, like Saga Norén, Sarah Lund and Lisbeth Salander for that matter – he fails in his personal, social and professional relationships. His main contribution to the film’s actual action is to get wounded and fall over. He is a drunkard who – in Nesbø’s <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/9130821/Jo-Nesbo-talks-about-Phantom.html">later work</a> – skids further and further off the rails and eventually turns to opium abuse. He is, as he admits in the film’s dramatic and emotional climax, fundamentally selfish. In short, he is no kind of a role model for his adopted son or for a contemporary audience. His one redeeming feature – and the film’s – is that he knows it.</p>
<p>That is perhaps scant consolation; but in a film released as a series of shattering revelations emerged about <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41594672">sexual misconduct</a> of some of Hollywood’s biggest players, its overt polemic against such bludgeoning misogyny might seem almost as timely as the blockbusting returns of such kick-ass heroines as Lara Croft and Wonder Woman. If Harry Hole, then, is a hero for our times, then it is only because (unlike Eastwood’s glamorously dirty cop) this emphatically unwholesome Harry is one whose conduct serves not as a model but as a warning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85890/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alec Charles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Jo Nesbø’s bleak thriller featuring troubled hero Harry Hole, rings the changes in a genre recently dominated by female protagonists.Alec Charles, Dean of Faculty of Arts, University of WinchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/717662017-02-06T11:17:44Z2017-02-06T11:17:44ZHow a rare murder in Iceland has chilled a nation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/154796/original/image-20170130-7663-a8h9p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Icelandic crime.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Events in Iceland at the start of 2017 were eerily reminiscent of <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/scandi-noir-modus-swedish-drama-the-bridge-the-killing-borgen-lars-mikkelsen-house-of-cards-a7434216.html">Nordic noir</a>. Iceland in January. It is bleak, cold and dark. A young woman goes missing. Soon a national search operation is underway. Citizens are asked to check their gardens and outbuildings. How can someone just disappear from this peaceful, tight knit, low-crime community? </p>
<p>Sadly, eight days later, the body of 20-year-old Birna Brjánsdóttir <a href="http://icelandreview.com/news/2017/01/25/autopsy-confirms-birna-was-murdered">was found</a>. The missing person case has become a murder case. It is a tragic tale, reminiscent of those by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jun/17/featuresreviews.guardianreview11">Arnaldur Indriðason</a>, Iceland’s foremost crime novelist, which has both gripped and mobilised this small island nation.</p>
<p>Brjánsdóttir was a young, pretty woman with no seeming connections to crime or other problems. In criminology, this kind of profile which generates particular sympathy is referred to as <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=102548">the “ideal victim”</a>. And it is a scenario that stirs a primeval fear – a loved one who goes missing without a trace. At the same time, the <a href="http://icelandmag.visir.is/article/identity-two-men-suspected-murdering-20-year-old-birna-brjansdottir-revealed">current suspects</a> are classic “outsiders” – or foreigners. Two sailors from Greenland who had docked in Iceland with a Greenlandic trawler. The vessel had already lifted anchor when the case developed and both suspects were flown back to Iceland by police helicopter. </p>
<p>It is a crime which would shock any community. But it is perhaps particularly shocking for the nation of Iceland as a whole. Iceland is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/mar/25/iceland-most-feminist-country">known for its egalitarianism</a> in a way that seems difficult to comprehend for most outsiders. Icelanders think of themselves as similar, kindred, and have a strong sense of community. <a href="http://grapevine.is/news/2016/10/18/icelands-unemployment-rate-finally-drops-below-2/">Unemployment is low</a>: everybody counts. </p>
<p>Historically, life in Iceland required high levels of human cooperation. With short summers and bitterly cold winters, it was all hands to the pump to secure survival. Icelanders think of themselves as inclusive, inventive, and resilient. To a surprising extent, the Icelandic self image is of one extended family with little social distance, class or other dividing lines. The lines to those in power are short. </p>
<p>When an event like this murder happens, it feels as if everyone has lost a daughter or sister, including those in power. <a href="http://icelandreview.com/news/2017/01/24/birnas-family-receives-letters-condolence">Heartfelt condolences</a> from the president of Iceland and the prime minister were issued. </p>
<p>Iceland is peaceful. Even in times of great upheaval, such as when it gained independence from Denmark in 1944, no blood was ever shed. The aftermath of the global financial crash that brought Iceland’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/17/the-miraculous-story-of-iceland/?utm_term=.a1532b16c051">economy to its knees</a> in 2008 led to a “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/icelands-pots-and-pans-revolution-lessons-from-a-nation-that-people-power-helped-to-emerge-from-its-10351095.html">pots and pans revolution</a>” that was noisy (demonstrators banged kitchenware) but peaceful. Iceland has no standing army and its police are unarmed. </p>
<p>In addition, Iceland is a low crime country. The <a href="http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2015/05/13/iceland_3rd_lowest_murder_rate/">annual murder rate</a> averages just 1.8 murders a year. There have been years without a single homicide, 2008 being the most recent one. And when murders do occur, they are mostly the results of intoxicated fights or family feuds. Unsolved murder cases, so-called murder mysteries, are almost unheard of. </p>
<h2>Murder in a cold climate</h2>
<p>Perhaps as a result, the <a href="http://www.prisonstudies.org/country/iceland">prison rate in Iceland</a> is one of the lowest in Europe. Prisons, which are few and far between, are small, benign, but also underfunded. No more than about 150 prisoners are serving time on any day in a total of six prisons. Only last year, the first purpose-built modern security prison, Hólmsheiði, opened while two older facilities were closed down. The prison system contains humanitarian elements with a focus on education and family visits. Family visits for a whole weekend are possible in the new facility, and open prisons are part and parcel of the system. This is quite reminiscent of the Norwegian prison system which is <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/why-norways-prison-system-is-so-successful-2014-12">frequently lauded</a> as Europe’s most enlightened. The Iceland prison service’s claim to fame is the imprisonment of numerous bankers, further to the global financial crash. </p>
<p>But the current murder case places the Iceland police in the spotlight. Cases such as this are make or break in terms of public confidence in the police and Iceland is no different. The police worked in conjunction with the media to galvanise the public. It seems that the investigation used CCTV, forensic analysis, appeals to the public and there was swift action when evidence emerged. </p>
<p>This is important. People in Iceland have long memories and older citizens will think back to events in 1974 when two men, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_7617/index.html">Guðmundur Einarsson and Geirfinnur Einarsson</a> (no relation) went missing in separate incidents 43 years ago. Although six people were convicted for their murders, there is widespread and enduring unease about the case, with suggestions of a miscarriage of justice through coerced false confessions. The bodies of both men have never been found. </p>
<p>This history elevates the importance of the Brjánsdóttir case even more. If there is a swift resolution to this case it will have been achieved the Icelandic way – by cooperation between police, media, forensic science, and, most importantly, the community. Whereas the crime is entirely at odds with life on this cold and windy Island on the edge of Europe, its successful resolution may just <a href="http://icelandmag.visir.is/article/video-a-large-crowd-gathered-reykjavik-saturday-remember-birna-brjansdottir">reinforce the community spirit</a> that continues to exist here.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71766/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helgi Gunnlaugsson receives funding from the University of Iceland Research Fund. Gunnlaugsson works for the University of Iceland. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francis Pakes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What one isolated case tells us about crime and community on this special island.Francis Pakes, Professor of Criminology, University of PortsmouthHelgi Gunnlaugsson, Professor of Sociology, University of IcelandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/693862016-12-21T10:34:19Z2016-12-21T10:34:19ZScandinavian winters of old were less hygge, more Nordic Noir<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/148936/original/image-20161206-25753-j0nty2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> RPBaiao / Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This winter <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-danish-concept-of-hygge-and-why-its-their-latest-successful-export-67268">hygge</a> has replaced Nordic Noir as the UK’s favourite Scandi-import. But the festive season in the Nordic world has not always granted an opportunity for cosy mindfulness. Medieval sources offer a decidedly more terrifying vision of Christmas, or <em>jól</em> (yule), its proximity to the winter solstice putting it at the heart of icy nightmares.</p>
<p>In the tenth century, King Hákon the Good (c. 920-961) ordered that the pre-Christian festival of yule should be observed at the same time Christians celebrated Christmas, Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) tells us. The word <em>jól</em> was not replaced when it came to designate the Christian feast and related terms are still used in the modern Scandinavian languages. Both festivals involved drinking and feasting – but Old Norse texts also make a firm correlation between yuletide and the supernatural.</p>
<p>Understandably in such a northern climate, Norse mythology associated wintry weather with hostile forces. It was said that a mighty winter lasting three years would lead up to <em>ragnarök</em>, the apocalypse. The giants that constantly threaten the civilisation of the gods are associated with rime and frozen altitudes – one even has an icicle-beard that tinkles as he moves. It’s no surprise in <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/game-of-thrones-6730">Game of Thrones</a> that those living north of the <a href="http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Wall">Wall</a> are referred to as “wildlings” by the citizens of the Seven Kingdoms, or that the truly terrifying <a href="http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/White_Walkers">White Walkers</a> come from the “Lands of Always Winter” in the Far North.</p>
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<h2>Yuletide ghosts</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-icelandic-saga-63112">the Icelandic sagas</a>, hauntings are particularly rife at Christmas, with <em>draugar</em>, the corporeal ghosts of the deceased, returning to wreak havoc in their former households.</p>
<p>In the saga of Grettir Ásmundarson, for example, the fearsome shepherd Glámr engages in a mutually fatal Christmas Eve battle with an “evil creature” beleaguering the farm. But Glámr returns posthumously to damage property and terrorise the population by night. The hauntings lessen as the days grow longer, but next Christmas Eve the cycle begins again. In the third year, the pattern is broken by the eponymous hero Grettir, who – after an almighty tussle – is able to defeat the revenant by cutting off its head and placing it beside its buttocks (though not before being cursed so that Grettir is forever afraid of the dark).</p>
<p>And in The Saga of the People of Eyri (<em>Eyrbyggja saga</em>), a household is beset just before yule by a supernatural seal popping up through the fireplace – a far less welcome visitor than Santa coming down the chimney. Every attempt to club the seal only makes it rise further, until a boy whacks it with a sledgehammer “and the seal went down as if he were driving in a nail”. The ghostly return of six drowned men is at first celebrated, but the revenants outstay their welcome and are eventually dispatched through a combination of religious rites and legal proceedings.</p>
<p>In latitudes where midwinter offers at best four or five hours of daylight, it is natural that beliefs imbued with a fear of the dark should transpire. <a href="https://boydellandbrewer.com/seasons-in-the-literatures-of-the-medieval-north-hb.html">It has been suggested</a> that the association of revenants with winter may have been heightened because solidly frozen ground or heavy snowdrifts could hamper normal burial procedures, leading to a consequent fear that the dead could more easily rise.</p>
<h2>Freaky feasts</h2>
<p>Even kings can’t avoid their Christmas parties being ruined by supernatural happenings. In Snorri’s <em>Heimskringla</em>, his chronicle of the kings of Norway, all the food for King Hálfdan’s (c. 810-860) yule banquet is spirited away. King Harald Fine-Hair (c. 850-932), on the other hand, drinks a love-potion disguised as Christmas mead, driving him so mad with desire he neglects his kingly duties until the object of his new affections dies and is cremated.</p>
<p>Aristocratic Christmases are also documented by the <em>skalds</em>, medieval Scandinavia’s court poets. Here we find all the elements now associated with a merry Christmas – eating, drinking and gift-giving – but given a typically dark and martial twist. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149548/original/image-20161211-31396-10yzrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149548/original/image-20161211-31396-10yzrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149548/original/image-20161211-31396-10yzrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149548/original/image-20161211-31396-10yzrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149548/original/image-20161211-31396-10yzrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149548/original/image-20161211-31396-10yzrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149548/original/image-20161211-31396-10yzrc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Odin with his ravens Huginn and Muninn. From manuscript SÁM 66.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When the poet Grani <a href="http://skaldic.abdn.ac.uk/db.php?id=2752&if=default&table=verses&val=edition">praises Harald Hardrada</a> (1015-1066) for “prepar[ing] a yule-feast for the retinue of Huginn”, the implications are darker than they seem: Huginn is one of Odin’s pet ravens – and a feast for carrion birds consists of dead bodies. Grani is in fact lauding Harald’s success in battle. For the <em>skalds</em>, Christmas was just another occasion to boast of their patron’s brutal brand of bravery.</p>
<p>The medieval period didn’t have a monopoly on creepy Christmases. Iceland’s <a href="https://www.academia.edu/2993258/Gr%C3%B8leks_and_Skeklers_Medieval_Disguise_Traditions_in_the_North_Atlantic">Grýla</a> may be a giantess known to Norse myth, but her tendency to devour naughty children at Christmastime – and her pet cat who gobbles up those without new clothes – are recorded hundreds of years later. Modern-day figures have become more good-natured, though: Grýla’s sons, known as the “Yule Lads”, are now more likely to be found distributing Christmas gifts than scaring the population into good behaviour. </p>
<p>“<a href="http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Winter_is_Coming_(motto)">Winter is coming</a>” still resounds with menace in modern storytelling, but we can all sleep snug in our beds knowing we probably won’t have to contend with a supernatural seal while hanging the stockings this Christmas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69386/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Burrows receives funding from the Arts and Humanties Research Council. </span></em></p>When it’s dark all the time you never know who might want to come to the Christmas party.Hannah Burrows, Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/419642015-05-28T20:12:42Z2015-05-28T20:12:42ZAt the end of the Wallander era, Nordic Noir has come into its own<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82660/original/image-20150522-12489-1erpfqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kenneth Branagh stars as the much-loved detective Wallander in the British TV adaptation of Henning Mankell's crime novels.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Leftbank Pictures </span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://nordicnoir.tv">Nordic Noir</a> fans are currently indulging in a prolonged festival of Scandinavian culture. The SBS and the ABC are both broadcasting Wallander, the Swedish and British television series based on crime novelist <a href="http://www.famousauthors.org/henning-mankell">Henning Mankell’s</a> character, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0026673/?ref_=fn_al_ch_1">Inspector Kurt Wallander</a>. </p>
<p>On SBS fans are watching the latest Swedish series starring <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/jun/20/krister-henriksson-on-leaving-wallander">Krister Henriksson</a> as Wallander; brilliant, brooding, opera and whisky-loving but burnt out solving complex and often depraved crimes and murders – to the detriment of his inner life. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for season 3 of Wallander.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Alas, this is the final Swedish series and, in the <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/433214531524/Wallander-S3-Ep3-The-Betrayal">most recently screened episode</a>, we saw Wallander rush to his closet and pull back the clothes to reveal a storyboard of mug shots and name tags. This time, it’s not a crime he is trying to solve – these are his work colleagues and he is desperately trying to remember their names. The great detective has Alzheimer’s and is slowly losing his memory.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Interview with Henning Mankell (2012).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We had to wait two years for the series to make it to Australian screens, and now SBS is making us wait until next week, June 2, for the next episode. (The series has been interrupted for the <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/article/2015/04/28/giro-ditalia-broadcast-details?cid=infocus">Giro d’Italia</a> bicycle race.)</p>
<p>But fans need not despair – tune in to the ABC. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/wallander/">Repeats</a> of the British adaptation starring <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000110/">Kenneth Branagh</a> as Wallander are screening once a week and available to watch on iView.</p>
<p>Branagh’s Wallander is even more dour, dishevelled and drained than his Swedish counterpart – often falling asleep fully clothed in his armchair then being abruptly woken with yet another grisly crime to solve.</p>
<p>At least the armchair is a vintage Scandinavian design and comfortable as well as stylish, for he cannot rest – <a href="https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Ystad,+Sweden/@55.4348921,13.8166315,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x46547d520ab5491d:0x59127c22a563b89d">Ystad</a>, a port town of 17,000 residents, is a very dangerous place.</p>
<p>The Wallander novels have been translated into 40 languages and have sold more than 30 million copies in 100 countries. They were first adapted to feature films starring Swedish actor <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qplA6q76IMk">Rolf Lassgard</a> before the television series with Swedish stage actor Krister Henrikssen in the lead. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82666/original/image-20150522-12515-1guh0ll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82666/original/image-20150522-12515-1guh0ll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82666/original/image-20150522-12515-1guh0ll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82666/original/image-20150522-12515-1guh0ll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82666/original/image-20150522-12515-1guh0ll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82666/original/image-20150522-12515-1guh0ll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82666/original/image-20150522-12515-1guh0ll.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The five Wallanders, Ystad Cineteket Film Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Helen Vatsikopoulos</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To date, there have been around 30 television episodes produced, many of them written by screen writers from new plots penned by Mankell.</p>
<h2>The global boom in Nordic Noir</h2>
<p>The success of Nordic Noir has seen it develop into a genre of its own. As a cultural export, it is an important source of <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-more-soft-power-than-ever-but-can-we-keep-it-20698">soft power</a> for Scandinavian countries.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://theconversation.com/soft-power-how-tv-shows-like-borgen-put-denmark-on-the-map-20064">previous interview</a> for The Conversation, Piv Bernth - the head of drama at DR, Denmark’s public broadcaster – said that Scandinavians deliberately studied the American police procedurals before developing their highly acclaimed series such as <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y4z22">The Killing</a> (2011), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1733785/">The Bridge</a> (2011-) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1526318/">Borgen</a> (2010-).</p>
<p>Now it’s the Scandinavians, with their melancholic characters and dark landscapes, who are setting the agenda. </p>
<p>TV scholar <a href="http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/jptv/2015/00000003/00000001/art00002?crawler=true">Glen Creeber</a> argues that the Nordic Noir genre has influenced new crime dramas from Britain and the United States, such as <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/broadchurch/">Broadchurch</a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2014/dec/18/the-fall-recap-season-two-episode-six-finale">The Fall</a> and <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/02/-em-true-detective-em-the-best-show-on-tv/283727/">True Detective</a>, and has even spawned a new breed – Celtic Noir – which he says is “strangely Nordic in tone”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82662/original/image-20150522-12473-p8l615.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82662/original/image-20150522-12473-p8l615.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82662/original/image-20150522-12473-p8l615.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82662/original/image-20150522-12473-p8l615.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82662/original/image-20150522-12473-p8l615.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82662/original/image-20150522-12473-p8l615.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82662/original/image-20150522-12473-p8l615.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The set of the Swedish version of Wallander, at the Ystad Cineteket Film Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Helen Vatsikopoulos</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The end of Wallander onscreen?</h2>
<p>But back to Wallander – he is getting Alzheimer’s, so is this the end? Well, yes and no.</p>
<p>Kenneth Branagh has just finished filming his fourth and final series in Ystad, the Skane region and scenes in South Africa.</p>
<p>But what do the Swedes think of this English accented detective, living and working in Scania with Swedish language signs everywhere? He is pronouncing his name not as Krister Henricksson does - “Kort Vallander” - but phonetically as “Kert Wollander”.</p>
<p>In an interview for this article, Jan-Olov Anderssen, Swedish film and television critic for the Aftonbladet newspaper, <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/dying-a-slow-death-20111102-1muau.html">praised</a> some of the other Scandinavian crime series remakes, such as the American version of The Killing and the British/ French and US/ Mexican versions of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/arts/television/the-bridge-adapts-a-scandinavian-tv-crime-series.html?_r=0">The Bridge</a> – but says the Wallander franchise is strange:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s a bit weird, they take place in the same area and they speak English and have Swedish names and they can’t pronounce the names and its kind of – it doesn’t matter for the English audiences but for us its kind of corny.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Kenneth Branagh can take heart – his series has earned accolades and six <a href="http://www.bafta.org/search/bafta/wallander">British Film and Television Awards</a>.</p>
<h2>Ystad after Wallander</h2>
<p>And what’s next for Ystad? </p>
<p>Henning Mankell actually wrote his books in the southern coastal town – inspired by the wild windy beaches, half wooden houses and cobbled medieval streets surrounded by undulating rapeseed fields.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82661/original/image-20150522-12502-1a6bcnm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82661/original/image-20150522-12502-1a6bcnm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82661/original/image-20150522-12502-1a6bcnm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82661/original/image-20150522-12502-1a6bcnm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82661/original/image-20150522-12502-1a6bcnm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82661/original/image-20150522-12502-1a6bcnm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82661/original/image-20150522-12502-1a6bcnm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The desk of Henning Mankell on display in the Ystad Cineteket Film Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Helen Vatsikopoulos</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And ever since the first novel’s success, local authorities began to notice a different type of visitor, one that came specifically for the Wallander experience.</p>
<p>They then marketed the television locations, created a <a href="http://www.ystad.se/in-english/to-see-and-do-in-ystad/kurt-wallanders-ystad/">Wallander app</a> and walking-tour brochure, and quickly invested money in the Wallander television adaptations.</p>
<p>And so began the “Wallander effect”.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.euroscreen.org.uk/?p=2425">Euroscreen</a> is a pan-European project that recently published a three-year study on the value of film and television locations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82658/original/image-20150522-12520-19l3ct1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82658/original/image-20150522-12520-19l3ct1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82658/original/image-20150522-12520-19l3ct1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82658/original/image-20150522-12520-19l3ct1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82658/original/image-20150522-12520-19l3ct1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82658/original/image-20150522-12520-19l3ct1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82658/original/image-20150522-12520-19l3ct1.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Downtown in the port town of Ystad.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Helen Vatsikopoulos</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the case of Ystad, it found that the combined value of the Swedish and British Wallanders amounted to a £17.5 million (A$34.7 million) injection in publicity and promotion for the town.</p>
<p>Petra Rundqvist is the film strategist for the Municipality of Ystad. Speaking to me for this article, she told me that the town owes everything to the fictitious sleuth.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Wallander has meant a lot by selling the brand of Ystad abroad. Many people that did not know about Sweden and Skåne know about Ystad as the hometown of Wallander. It is part of our branding of the town. We also know that a lot of tourists – actually 15% – come just because of Wallander.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rundqvist says that the town capitalised on the character and invested heavily in turning the former garrison town into a tourist and industry destination with state of the art film studios and events – such as the Detective Film Festival and <a href="http://www.filmiskane.se/pixel/">Pixel</a>, the Skane Film Festival.</p>
<p>In just a decade Ystad has reinvented itself as a film hub hosting 37 international film co-productions and 94 productions, to date.</p>
<p>The two Wallander series created 263 local jobs.</p>
<p>Rundqvist says Wallander’s mental decline and the television series coming to an end leaves her heavy of heart. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Without Wallander we would not be able to be a movie town at all – since everything started with Wallander. It is of course sad in a way – we would love to see a continuation – but we need to believe that other television series and films will come here as well.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She says her job as a film strategist continues and she works hard to keep Ystad film friendly. The latest series of the Swedish/Danish co-production of <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10602238/Clive-James-The-end-of-The-Bridge-I-might-die-of-despair.html">The Bridge</a>
has just wrapped up production at Ystad’s film studios.</p>
<p>And that’s not all: Bollywood has beckoned. So far, three Bollywood productions have been filmed in Ystad including <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2222550/">1920 – Evil Returns</a> (2012). </p>
<p>Who would have thought? Saris in Scania. Wallander would think he’s losing his mind. </p>
<p><br>
<em>ABC is screening reruns of Wallander Series 2 on <a href="http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/wallander?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=Corp_TV-iview%7CiviewAdwords_AdWords_:abc%20tv%20wallander_b_g_46599094159_&gclid=CJav1O_Y1MUCFQ1xvAod9EAAYA">ABC iView</a>. Episodes of the Swedish version are also available on <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/424438851578/Wallander-S3-Ep1-The-Troubled-Man#/Menu/Search/wallander">SBS On Demand</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41964/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Vatsikopoulos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nordic Noir fans are currently indulging in a prolonged festival of Scandinavian culture. The SBS and the ABC are both broadcasting Wallander, the Swedish and British television series based on crime novelist…Helen Vatsikopoulos, Lecturer in Journalism, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.