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WALLANDER

Warner - BBC America / Region 1 / Released 2 June 2009

Featuring Kenneth Branagh, Sarah Smart, Tom Hiddleston,

Kenneth Branagh brings his powerful acting presence to the small screen in the BBC's riveting new crime drama series Wallander. Set in the seemingly always freezing environs of Sweden's Ystad district and based on the hugely popular novels by Henning Mankell the series focuses on middle aged detective Kurt Wallander and his team as they solve a trio of feature length murder mysteries. Hard hitting and well paced the stories range from human trafficking (Sidetracked) to the murder of a colleague (One Step Behind) and the murder of a cab driver by two teenage girls is not what it seems (Firewall).

In the series opener Wallander is going through a trial seperation from his wife and has moved into his own small apartment and is clearly struggling with the arrangement, his daughter is quite often on hand to offer support but his relationship with his elderly father is going nowhere fast.

Like all right thinking people Mankell is majorly concerned with the state of the world today and our own dehumanisation and although the mysteries are the heart of the books, he also uses the novels to make very salient points about not just Swedish societies ills but also the wider world at large, this is something that is carried through very nicely into the series.

Often gruesome but brilliantly made, Kenneth Branagh captures the state of world weariness that is Kurt Wallander to a tee. The rest of the main cast is excellent too, from the gorgeous Sarah Smart as right hand girl Anne-Britt Hoglund and Tom Hiddleston (whose stock is set to soar dramitically having just been given the co-lead in Marvel's upcoming Thor epic) as Detective Constable Martinsson, best of all though is an appearance from the legendary David Warner as Wallander's crochety artist father Povel.

The set also includes some great extras including a profile of Kurt himself and interviews with Branagh and creator Henning Mankell.

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