SERIES SUMMARY The series based on Maria Lang’s crime novels is set in the magic beauty of Bergslagen, a genuinely Swedish environment. In six episodes, we meet Puck and Einar Bure along with police superintendent Christer Wijk in their quest to catch the killer. The murderer is always “one of us” and the murder plots are crimes of passion. Each episode is a classic whodunnit where we follow the lives and fortunes of interesting characters in an exciting thriller filled with love, sex, intrigue, betrayal, secrets, lies, and death. ”The task of the mystery is to offer a few hours of legitimate escape from reality by engaging us in a problem. Its light, sometimes absurd, tone of comedy is more important to me than heavy and serious social realism.” – Maria Lang
MAIN CHARACTERS CHRISTER WIJK: A police superintendent living in Stockholm, around 35 years old, who has a great love for Bergslagen where he spent his childhood. He also loves women and women love him. He is perpetually searching for “the right one”, but is not really willing to settle down. Christer’s father died when Christer was only a young boy, leaving him to grow up with his loving mother. Lacking financial means, she worked long hours in a shoe shop to put food on the table, and one can almost say that she is Christer’s greatest love. Christer is smart and people often see him as enigmatic and somewhat secretive. Inside, he is a deeply passionate man, a fact that he is reluctant to reveal to those around him. But his power of attraction for women, and his exceptional skill in solving murder cases, invites us to imagine all the boiling and smouldering going on inside him. PUCK EKSTEDT: A student of literature, around 28 years old, who has difficulty focusing on finishing her thesis. Married to Christer Wijk’s childhood friend Einar. Puck is modern for her time, she is curious, outspoken and spirited. It is through Puck that we enter the stories, and she is the one we identify with. She is a good judge of character, and her open attitude often tempts people to confide in her. Puck is a pleasure-seeking girl with a great appetite for life, and she often finds it difficult to choose duty before pleasure. The tension between her and Christer, and her habit of providing the last piece of the puzzle in Christer’s cases, has led to a playful yet not outspoken jealousy between the two of them and Einar. EINAR BURE: Puck’s husband and Christer Wijk’s best friend since childhood. Although Christer and Einar come from different social backgrounds, they have always been close friends. Einar is good looking, humorous and witty, and, like Puck’s father, is a dyed-in-the wool academic. He has a doctorate in history, with a special interest in the Middle Ages. Einar appreciates the friendship between Puck and Christer and denies any shred of jealousy. If one were to ask what Einar’s got that Christer lacks, the answer would be this: whereas Christer is fleeting and passionate, Einar can offer security and lasting love and especially the intellectual resistance that Puck so badly needs.
1. DEATH OF A LOVED ONE Original Title: Mördaren ljuger inte ensam Directed by: Birger Larsen Duration: 90 min. Puck has been invited by her tutor at the university to celebrate midsummer at his secluded cottage on an island together with a group of friends, among them Einar Bure. Puck and Einar are having a secret relationship, and he is the reason she says yes to the invitation. The summer nights are seductively beautiful and erotic tensions are rampant between the guests. Having been out on a romantic spree with Einar, Puck finds one of the female guests murdered. Einar contacts his friend Christer Wijk, but upon Christer’s arrival, the dead body has disappeared. Contact with the outside world is broken when the island’s only boat goes missing. They are trapped on the island – and someone amongst them is a killer. Under these circumstances Puck gets to know both Einar and Christer. But before the murderer is exposed, two people have been killed, and one person has committed suicide.
2. KING LILY OF THE VALLEY Original Title: Kung Liljekonvalje av dungen Directed by: Christian EklÜw & Christopher Panow Duration: 90 min. Spring is in the air and Puck and Einar, as well as Christer Wijk, are invited to a wedding in Skoga. The day before the wedding, the bride-to-be enters a flower shop in order to inspect her lily of the valley bouquet, but suddenly vanishes without a trace. When she eventually turns up again, it is Christer who finds her. She’s lying dead outside her home with a bouquet of lily of the valley in her hand. Everybody close to the bride is a suspect, not least her best friend, whom Christer has just begun flirting with. Everybody seems to have something to hide. The question is: are their secrets connected to the murder?
3. NO MORE MURDERS Original Title: Inte flera mord Directed by: Peter Schildt Duration: 90 min. Puck and Einar have been married for two months when they decide to spend the last weeks of their vacation in Einar’s idyllic childhood town of Skoga. Puck’s father Johannes Ekstedt, professor of Egyptology, has a cat named Thotmes III that joins the couple. They get to borrow Einar’s sister’s beautiful old wooden house as well as her highly competent housekeeper. But after the first night, the idyll crumbles. Einar finds a dead body on the lawn, a young man stabbed to death with a dagger. Christer Wijk enters the stage and with the help of Puck’s observations, the mystery approaches its tragic solution.
4. ROSES, KISSES AND DEATH Original Title: Rosor, kyssar och döden Directed by: Daniel di Grado Duration: 90 min. The country estate of Rödbergshyttan is surrounded by heavily fragrant roses of every colour. There lives the beautiful Gabriella, whom Christer is in love with, and an invitation to their engagement party is the reason that Puck and her Einar travel there. But the rose-scented idyll soon turns into a stifling backdrop when Puck finds Gabriella’s grandfather poisoned in his bed. Little by little, we learn that the relationships between the people living on the estate are anything but uncomplicated, and that there is a sexual frustration behind every well polished marriage. The question is to what extent beautiful Gabriella is involved in the intrigues and how much of a coincidence it is that her grandfather is killed just when Christer is in the house.
5. DANGEROUS DREAMS Original Title: Farliga drömmar Directed by: Molly Hartleb Duration: 90 min. Puck has managed to get a job as stenographer for the eccentric Nobel Literature Prize laureate Andreas Hallman. Hallman is charming and genial, but also a neurotic tyrant. He forces his wife, his three grown children and a daughter-in-law to live in seclusion together, separated from the rest of the world. The atmosphere in the home is threatening and ultimately fatal. One night, after the daughter-in-law’s birthday dinner, Hallman’s eldest and best loved son dies. The question is whether the son, who was frail and sickly, died of natural causes or not. But not long afterwards, Andreas Hallman himself dies, and now there is no doubt that it is murder. An exquisite tale of poisoning unravels, exposing Puck to a murder attempt. At the very last minute, Christer Wijk manages to make the pieces of the puzzle fall into place and also saves the life of an already unconscious Puck.
6. TRAGEDY IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD Original Title: Tragedi på en lantkyrkogård Directed by: TBC Duration: 90 min. It is Christmas Eve, and a sumptuous Christmas table has been laid out in the vicarage for the vicar and his guests, Puck and Einar Bure, and Professor Ekstedt. Then there is a knock at the door. Blond and beautiful Barbara Sandell announces that her husband is missing. He is found murdered in his own country store and all of a sudden the vicarage and the village are teeming with photographers, forensic experts and police under Christer Wijk’s command. Village gossip tears at old wounds while the mystery surrounding the crimes thickens. This is turning into a Christmas that the peaceful village will never forget.
MAIN CAST Puck Ekstedt:
Tuva Novotny
Christer Wijk:
Ola Rapace
Einar Bure:
Linus Wahlgren
PRODUCTION FACTS Based on:
The classic crime novels
by author Maria Lang
Genre:
“Whodunnit” Crime Series
Country of Origin:
Sweden
Production Year:
2012
First Release:
Spring 2013
Format:
16:9 (2:35.1) HD 1920x1080
Sound:
5.1 (Dolby 5.1)
Duration:
6x90 min
Delivery Date:
Approx. July 2013
Executive Producer: Johan Mardell Producer:
Renée Axö
Production Company: Pampas Produktion AB International Sales:
AB Svensk Filmindustri
CREW Editor: TBC Cinematographer:
Mats Axby
Andres Rignell
Rolf Lindström
Jan Jonaeus
Production Designer: Annelie Wemstad Make-up Designer:
Helene Norberg
Therese Sandersson
Costume Designer:
Ingrid Sjögren
Script by:
Jonna Bolin-Cullberg (film 1, 2, 3, 5)
Charlotte Orwin (film 1, 2, 3, 5)
Kerstin Gezelius (film 4)
Alex Haridi (film 6)
Production Manager: Lisa Berggren Eyre Produced by:
Renée Axö
Directed by:
Birger Larsen (film 1)
Christopher Panow &
Christian Eklöw (film 2)
Peter Schildt (film 3)
Daniel di Grado (film 4)
Molly Hartleb (film 5)
Credits not contractual
INTERNATIONAL SALES: AB SVENSK FILMINDUSTRI SE-169 86 Stockholm, Sweden Phone: +46 8 680 35 00 / Fax: +46 8 710 44 60 international@sf.se / www.sfinternational.se
PAMPAS PRODUKTION AB
TV4 AB