WALLANDER: PRAESTEN/PRIEST

Sweden, 2009, 90 minutes, Colour.
Krister Henriksson, Lena Endre, Mats Bergman, Fredrik Gunnarsson, Tobias Aspelin, Lena Carlsson.
Directed by Henrik Georgsson.

Krister Henriksson plays Wallander in twenty-six episodes, the first in 2005, the second in 2009/10. He is a contrast with Kenneth Branagh who portrayed Wallander in nine British/Swedish telemovies.

The Swedish films are much more ordinary in their presentation of police work in Sweden, contrasting with the Branagh version where he is a tortured soul and the film focuses on his own personal crises, relationship with his father and his daughter, his anguishing over his work and its implications.

The team is there working with him. This film involves the murder of the priest who was having an affair, his connection with the charity who was selling equipment cheaply to Africa, and exposé of corruption.

The films are interesting police stories in themselves, as well as Swedish interpretations of the novels by Henning Mankell.

1. Wallander and his capacity for investigation? As a policeman? His personal character? Characteristics throughout the series?

2. The city of Ystad, as a town, the waterfront, the police, the church, charities? Landscapes and details of the town? The musical score?

3. The setting of the scene: the priest, his wife, the affair, covering it, possibilities for divorce, his wife at home?

4. His being killed, the hospital, his body? The investigation, the interviews, the news, the issues of the charity work? Reactions? Suspicions, the wife and
her ignorance? The priest’s wife?

5. Wallander, his staff conducting investigations, the discussions, their methods, the interviews? The church?

6. The charity, the issue of the equipment, selling it? The head of the charity, his character? Exposure, the wife, innocence, the partner?

7. The wife, at the hospital, the relationship with her husband? The issue of the truck?

8. The wife, prim, suspect, prayer, her friend, help, the baptism?

9. The partner, help, the irony of the truth?

10. Katharina, involvement, the prosecution? Relationship with Wallander?

11. Wallander, his team, the people, the church, the charity, Wallander and his change of mind about the suspect?

12. The factory, the search, the partner, the gun?

13. Freeing the innocent? The judgements?

14. The trial, witness, the lies, the payoff?

15. The satisfactory resolution?