The Purity of Vengeance

Behind a wall in a Copenhagen flat, three bodies are found seated at a table; they have been there for years. The case falls to Department Q, run by Carl Mørck and Assad. The trail leads back to women confined on an island in the sixties. The subject is not murder but what the state once considered legitimate. Behind the film lies the period in which Denmark shut away women deemed unsuitable in an institution on an island and carried out measures that extended to sterilisation. The present-day crime is a direct consequence of that period. The form has the familiar coldness of Nordic crime: grey light, little music, restrained performance. The violence is not shown, its result is. The source is the fourth book in Jussi Adler-Olsen's Department Q series. It is considered the darkest of the films and stands apart from the others because it rests on non-fictional history. Christoffer Boe directs. Nikolaj Lie Kaas plays Mørck and Fares Fares plays Assad. Who it is for: viewers who like Nordic crime and criminal narratives grounded in real history. Who it is not for: anyone new to the series; the relationship between the two detectives carries over from the earlier films and is not rebuilt here.