Excellent…but definitely not a film for everyone.
by Martin Hafer
Fasandræberne is a Danish film directed by Mikkel Nørgaard. In its native land, this film recently became the highest grossing domestic film in history. Now it’s coming to DVD internationally and you’ll have a chance to see it as well.
Fasandræberne is an extremely graphic and unflinching crime film–one that you should be warned about before you decide to see it. While it’s extremely well made, there are also some very graphic murders, tons of blood, rape and other bits of nastiness that make this a poor choice if you want to watch a film with the kids or your mother. Think twice before you’d consider doing this…no, think three times!
- Fasandræberne
- Directed by
Mikkel Nørgaard - Cast
Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Danica Curcic, Fares Fares - Release Date
2015 - Martin’s Grade: A-
The film is a bit reminiscent of the American television shows Cold Case or Cold Case Files in that the story involves a police unit which investigates unsolved crimes. However, the case is unusual because someone has already been convicted of the crime. It seems that a police captain knows there’s much more to the case but has been unable to go further with the case. How he passes it on to the team is something … really, really something.
This case turns out to be 20 years old. And, through the course of the film, it turns out that the case has a lot of similarities to other cases committed since–horrible, senseless and violent crimes committed for kicks.
*****
The key to solving this is a woman named Kimmee who disappeared long, long ago as well as her involvement with a pair of rich and malevolent prep school teens. But, solving any of these crimes will be very difficult, as the perpetrators are powerful and well connected. It’s made even more difficult because one of the investigators is an emotional mess himself and you really aren’t sure if he’ll solve the crime or end up getting himself killed due to his recklessness and unwillingness to back down when he’s pressured to do so by his superiors.
As I first mentioned, the film is very graphic–much more so than I usually would watch. On the other hand, the plot is very intelligently written and the story is one that sucks you in and won’t let you go until the guilty are brought to justice. For crimes of cop stories that don’t mind a film that is very edgy and dark, this one is well worth seeing.
